Dehydration of bio-alcohols in an enhanced membrane-assisted reactor: A rigorous sensitivity analysis and multi-objective optimization

Abstract Green and efficient routes for a sustainable and renewable strategy in chemicals and energy delivery are highly demanded in the current status. Developing production routes from bio-alcohols is of immense interest. To achieve such a goal, an enhanced membrane-assisted dehydration reactor for the conversion of bio-alcohols (mainly made up of methanol and ethanol) is suggested. The system can eliminate the innate and produced water through the dehydration reaction, representing an intensified process that favors a conversion enhancement without needing a water purification unit. This study includes a rigorous feasibility study utilizing a validated mathematical model. The impacts of input variables such as feed flowrate, feed temperature, feed composition, and feed pressure, as well as the sweep gas flowrate and temperature, are examined. The sensitivity analysis is conducted in terms of feed conversion, temperature profiles, pressure drop, and desired product distributions. Then, an optimization strategy was developed to obtain the optimum operating conditions of each system leading to maximized conversion and product yields. According to the achievements of this study, the enhanced membrane-assisted dehydration reactor offers a great capacity for converting bio-alcohols and producing considerable quantities of DME from bio-methanol as well as DEE, ethylene, and butylene from bio-ethanol.