Grafting cellulose acetate with ionic liquids for biofuel purification membranes : Influence of the anion.

Membranes made from cellulose acetate grafted with imidazolium or ammonium ionic liquids (ILs) containing different anions were considered for ethyl tert-butyl ether biofuel purification by pervaporation. The new cellulosic materials were obtained after bromide (Br) exchange by different anions (TfN, BF, AcO). IL structure-membrane property relationships revealed that the membrane properties were strongly improved by varying the anion structure, molecular size and hydrogen bonding acceptor ability β in the Kamlet-Taft polarity scale.

Multiblock Copolymer Grafting for Butanol Biofuel Recovery by a Sustainable Membrane Process.

Biobutanol is an attractive renewable biofuel mainly obtained by the acetone-butanol-ethanol (ABE) fermentation process. Nevertheless, the alcohol concentration has to be limited to a maximum of 2 wt % in ABE fermentation broths to avoid butanol toxicity to the microorganisms. The pervaporation (PV) membrane process is a key sustainable technology for butanol recovery in these challenging conditions.

Grafting of cellulose acetate with ionic liquids for biofuel purification by a membrane process: Influence of the cation.

A new strategy was developed for grafting ionic liquids (ILs) onto cellulose acetate in order to avoid IL extraction and improve its performance for ethyl tert-butyl ether (ETBE) biofuel purification by the pervaporation membrane process. This work extended the scope of IL-containing membranes to the challenging separation of organic liquid mixtures, in which these ILs were soluble. The ILs contained the same bromide anion and different cations with increasing polar feature.