Energy Efficient Membrane Based Acetone Recovery

Acetone recovery was piloted in industry in two consecutive projects. ‘Energy Efficient Membrane Based Acetone Recovery’ (EEMBAR)  and its follow-up: “Integrated Solvent Recovery in edible Oil industry” (ISRO) project both have been concluded. Organic Solvent Nanofiltration (OSN) is an emerging technology that offers the possibility to recover organic solvents from industrial processes. At the IOILodersCroklaan (IOILC) fractionation factory tests have been executed with this technology during the EEMBAR project. From these test it emerged that OSN has the potential to lower the energy consumption of the distillation based acetone recovery process by 50%. In EEMBAR, the proof-of-principle SolSep’ s polymeric spiral wound elements was shown. Such same findings were recorded in the ceramic VITO-membranes. However, typical scale-up issues were also detected. These were largely covered in the second project ISRO.

The complications with upscaling the technology arose from the characteristics and the concentration of these vegetable oils that the membrane has to be able to process. These factors have a significant influence on the mass transfer. The results provide a good insight into the further optimisation of this concept to a satisfactory solution in the industrial environment (TRL 7). The design of the modules and a detailed process design was included in the work. It pinpointed specific scenarios for possibilities for an optimized process.

Partners in the project were the IOI -LodersCroklaan, VITO, SolSep, Tusti, ISPT and Hogeschool Rotterdam. Hogeschool Rotterdam were responsible for the connection of the program with the educational program.