Recipient Organization
COMPACT MEMBRANE SYSTEMS, INC.
335 WATER STREET
WILMINGTON,DE 19804
Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
There continues to be a need for production of biofuels from agricultural sources. Butanol is a more attractive fuel than ethanol because it leads to better gas mileage, it achieves higher blends with gasoline than bioethanol, it has greater compatibility with existing fuel infrastructure, it is less volatile, it is more amenable to transport via pipeline due to low water absorption, there is no need for an engine retrofit, and it allows to use numerous existing agricultural feedstocks, as well as next generation feedstock including cellulosic biomass and algae. To produce butanol efficiently the fermentation process must be run continuously while maintaining low butanol concentration in the fermenter. This requires that butanol be removed from the fermenter at the same rate that it is produced. This can be done by conventional distillation, which requires that the fermentation broth be first processed for removing the microorganisms for recycle to the fermenter. The clarified broth must be heated and distilled to produce a butanol concentrate in the distillate. The bottoms product from the distillation must be cooled down and recycled to the fermenter. The conventional process requires a solids-liquid separation step and is energy intensive. If an alternate technology were developed to a) Do the butanol recovery without an extra step to do the solids-liquid separation, and b) Reduce the heating/cooling energy requirements of the distillation step It would reduce butanol production costs, save energy and reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. Thus the process for producing biobutanol from agricultural sources and its economical attractiveness would be enhanced. The objective of this program is to develop a membrane system that accomplishes the above at a cost that is at least 30% lower than the cost conventional techniques. The Phase I was extremely successful and produced the data to give high probability of success in this Phase II program. This will be run experimentally and we will use best practices and statistically designed experiments to insure the highest quality data. Anticipated Results: Overall fuel market is 150 billion gallons per year domestically. With USDA/DOE plus executive mandates projecting 30% of fuel being renewable the market potential is 45 billion gallons/yr. Given biobutanol's superior performance to bioethanol, much of this 45 billion gallons/yr market is available to biobutanol if it can be supplied economically. Potential commercial applications: In addition to butanol, many other valuable chemicals can be derived from agricultural sources, e.g., acetone, glycerol, THF, isoprene, propanediol, gluconic acid, succinic acid, etc. All of these materials, assuming biochemical or fermentation routes to produce these materials are developed, would benefit from the CMS membrane technology and the proposed product concept.
Animal Health Component
40%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
20%
Applied
40%
Developmental
40%
Goals / Objectives
The goal is to scale up, optimize, pilot and field test a non-fouling membrane system that will recover butanol directly from the fermentation broth. Demonstrate the technical and economical advantage of the proposed concept over the conventional system relying entirely on distillation. The expected outputs/milestones during the 8 quarters and completion times are: 1. Produced an optimized CMS7/PDMS membrane so that it gives a butanol flux of at least 0.1 Kg/h-m2 and a butanol-water separation factor of at least 25 to 30. By end of 1st Q(Quarter). 2. Determined the fluxes and separation factors of butanol fermentation byproducts (acetone, butyric acid, acetic acid, ethanol. By end of 2nd Q 3. Produced at least 20 ft2 of membrane with butanol flux is at least 0.1 Kg/h-m2 and the butanol-water separation factor is at least 25 to 30. By end of 3d Q. 4. Fabricated at least two membrane modules. By end of 5th Q. 5. Designed, built and debugged pilot test system. By end of 4th Q. 6. Demonstrated in pilot test module initial flux of at least 0.1 Kg/h-m2, butanol-water separation factor of at least 25 to 30, and long term flux decline of no more than 20%. By end of 6th Q. 7. Demonstrated in field test a separation factor of at least 25 to 30 and initial flux of at least 0.1 kg/h/m2 under field conditions. By end of 7th Q. 8. Demonstrated that the cost of a membrane based system recovery of fermentation butanol is at least 30% less than in a conventional system based on distillation. By end of 8th Q.
Project Methods
The first 7 tasks of this program will be executed experimentally. Sufficient experiments will be run to insure reproducibility and for determining the experimental error. The data will be analyzed using statistical and graphical methods. This program will make use of the technical expertise and proprietary knowledge of the company for manufacturing novel membranes, membrane model and experimental test equipment. The chemical compositions of multicomponent samples will be determined by gas chromatography. In the case of binary samples the compositions will be analyzed by density using an acoustic density meter that is accurate to 5 decimal figures. The main output of this program will be evaluated and demonstrated in the field with a third party that would be a potential end user of the technology. Task 8, engineering design and economic analysis, will be done using the engineering models, which were developed for the Phase I economic analysis. These will be used in combination with cost estimation methods from the literature for estimating the capital and operating costs of the membrane and conventional systems. For the Phase II program, the analysis will be expanded to include an examination of the effects of important process variables, including: plant size, butanol production rate, and operating conditions.