Separation and Semi-Empiric Modeling of Ethanol-Water Solutions by Pervaporation Using PDMS Membrane.

High energy demand, competitive fuel prices and the need for environmentally friendly processes have led to the constant development of the alcohol industry. Pervaporation is seen as a separation process, with low energy consumption, which has a high potential for application in the fermentation and dehydration of ethanol. This work presents the experimental ethanol recovery by pervaporation and the semi-empirical model of partial fluxes.

Molecular distillation: a powerful technology for obtaining tocopherols from soya sludge.

Molecular distillation was studied for the separation of tocopherols from soya sludge, both experimentally and by simulation, under different operating conditions, with good agreement. Evaporator temperatures varied from 100 degrees C to 160 degrees C and feed flow rates ranged from 0.1 to 0.

Simulation and optimization of a supercritical extraction process for recovering provitamin A.

In this work, a simulation procedure of a supercritical extraction process was developed through the use of the commercial simulator HYSYS (Hyprotech Ltd.), adapting the existing units to the operating conditions typical of the supercritical extraction process. The objective is to recover provitamin A (beta-carotene) from palm oil (esterified) using carbon dioxide/ethanol as the supercritical mixed solvent.