A polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF)/polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) composite membrane for butanol recovery was fabricated by coating a dense PDMS separation layer on a PVDF porous support layer prepared by phase inversion. The total flux and separation factor of the PVDF/PDMS composite membrane could be 158.2 g·m-2·h-1 and 17.3
respectively
when feed solution was 15 g·L-1 butanol at 37℃ with a flow rate 1.6 L·min-1. To simulate the fermentation liquor
acetone and ethanol were added into the feed solution in a ratio 6(butanol):3:1
the total flux of PVDF/PDMS composite membrane increased to 189.5 g·m-2·h-1
but separation factor decreased to 14.8. Furthermore
fermentation broths with/without biomass as feed solution were investigated to evaluate pervaporation performance of the PVDF/PDMS composite membrane. The total flux and separation factor were 120.2 g·m-2·h-1 and 19.7 for without biomass case
122.1 g·m-2·h-1 and 16.7 for with biomass case
respectively. Compared with PDMS membrane
the performance of PVDF/PDMS composite membrane had significant improvement for butanol recovery
indicating that it is of potential for industrial application of butanol recovery.