On the effect of inert gases in breaking the formic acid–water azeotrope by gas-gap membrane distillation

Recovery of dilute acetone–butanol–ethanol (ABE) solvents from aqueous solutions via membrane distillation

“…Banat et al developed a general mathematical model that was initially validated with some published experimental data concerning the break of propionic acid-water azeotrope [12] and laterally used to predict the effect of inert gases in breaking the formic acid water azeotrope by gas-gap membrane distillation [13]. In a recent study by Banat et al [7] three modeling scenarios were employed in their previous model with reference to mass transfer in order to shed the light onto the importance of coupling interactions in separating an ethanol±water mixture by air gap membrane distillation.…”

“…By the spirit of this, Banat et al model with the exact Stefan±Maxwell equations was used to examine the potential application of membrane distillation for the simultaneous recovery of the ABE solvents from aqueous solutions at approximately the fermentation concentrations. The details of Banat et al model can be found elsewhere [7,12,13]. The simulation results were obtained for a¯at-sheet membrane module with the speci®cations listed in Table 1.…”

“…Similar behaviors are noticed when the ethanol feed concentration is increased and the acetone It should be mentioned that increasing the individual components concentration may not only affect their partial pressures but also may affect the coupling interactions between the transferring species. Banat et al [13] found that species¯ux and selectivity in the membrane distillation process are not only governed by the vapor±liquid equilibrium relations but also by the diffusion coef®cients and molecular coupling interactions in the gas phase. The concept of¯ux coupling and its consequences for different multicomponent mass transfer cases is well described by Wesselingh and Krishna [18].…”

CFD simulation of heat and mass transport for water transfer through hydrophilic membrane in direct-contact membrane distillation process

“…(2) Separation of azeotropic solutions. Banat et al [4] have reported that by using various inert gasses, the purity of the product obtained from azeotropic feed solution may be increased. The driving force for MD process is given by the vapor pressure gradient across the membrane which is caused by a temperature difference between the hot and the cold streams on two sides of membrane.…”

Experimental studies on the effect of inert gases on diffusion distillation of ethanol–water mixtures

“…But, for a given selectivity, argon, air and sulphur hexafluoride yield higher total molar flux than helium at constant vaporization temperature. Banat et al 3 investigated theoretically the effect of inert gases, such as helium, air and sulfur hexafluoride, in breaking the formic acid-water azeotrope by a gas-gap membrane distillation process under process relevant operating conditions. They used the Stefan-Maxwell based mathematical model that includes all necessary vapour-liquid equilibrium, heat and mass relationships for this purpose.…”