Highly concentrated aqueous ethanol solutions by pervaporation using silicalite membrane - Improvement of ethanol selectivity by addition of sugars to ethanol solution

Pervaporation performance using silicalite membranes in the separation of a n ethanol/water solution was affected by the addition of sugars, sugar alco hols or yeast cells. Although the membrane flux drastically decreased to ab out 30% of that for an aqueous ethanol solution with increasing glucose or lactose concentration, the selectivity towards ethanol was inversely enhanc ed by the addition of glucose from 23 to 137. The accumulated proteins and acidic by-products in the fermentation broth caused the decline in the perf ormance.