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An Integrated Membrane-based Process Train for Reducing Costs of Ethanol Production
Phone: (781) 899-4495
Email: rafoti@ceramem.com
Title: Senior Vice President
Phone: (781) 899-4495
Email: higgins@ceramem.com
Production of ethanol derived from starch crops and biomass is forecast to grow considerably in
the next decade. There exist opportunities for significant reductions in ethanol production costs
and associated energy usage via employment of innovative process operations. Many of these
processes involve membranes, which provide cost savings due primarily to reduced energy
consumption. Recently, new hydrophobic pervaporation (PV) membranes have been developed by
the proposing organization that (when scaled up to large sizes) will allow for displacement of
distillation as the means for extracting and concentrating ethanol from the fermentation liquid.
However, optimal deployment of these new PV membranes requires additional modifications in
the ethanol process train. The overall subject of this SBIR proposal is development of an
integrated process for more cost-effective production of ethanol from starchy crops. This process
features microfiltration (MF) as one pre-treatment operation prior to the PV membranes. In Phase
II, experimental work will focus on development of PV membrane cleaning procedures and of a
second pre-treatment process that will scavenge membrane foulants from feed streams and thereby
allow the PV membranes to operate at high efficiency for extended periods of time. The overall
Phase II goal is to demonstrate economically attractive operation of an ethanol-extracting
hydrophobic PV membrane for a period of at least 500 hours.
* Information listed above is at the time of submission. *