Pervaporation experiments were performed on microporous titania membranes using several binary liquids containing 2-20 wt % water. The membrane was nonselective in the separation of water from alcohols and p-dioxane but showed a remarkably high selectivity in the separation of water from ethylene glycol/water mixtures with < or =15 mol % water. The absence of selectivity under most conditions i...

In nature, the biological membrane can selectively transport essential small molecules/ions through facilitated diffusion via carrier proteins. Intrigued by this phenomenon and principle, membrane researchers have successfully employed synthetic carriers and carrier-mediated reversible reactions to enhance the separation performance of synthetic membranes. However, the existing facilitated tran...

Ion-exchange membranes have been used in various industrial processes, e.g., in the electrodialytic concentration of seawater to produce edible salt, as a separator for electrolysis, in the desalination of saline water by electrodialysis, in the separation of ionic materials from non-ionic materials by electrodialysis, in the recovery of acid and alkali from waste acid and alkali solution by di...

The integration of batch fermentation and membrane-based pervaporation process in a membrane bioreactor (MBR) was studied to enhance bioethanol production compared to conventional batch fermentation operated at optimum condition. For this purpose, a laboratory-scale MBR system was designed and fabricated. Dense hydrophobic Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) membrane was used for pervaporation. For fer...