one each alternative is biofuel, being carbon neutral. Products such as bioethanol and biobutanol are driven from cellulose-type biomass including wood, the cultivation of which does not compete with food production. Based on this, group of researchers at AIST have successfully developed an energy saving technology for biobutanol purification. The new technology is a membrane separation technology for biobutanol purification, paving the way for the next generation biofuel.
The newly developed membrane uses a zeolite-based membrane capable of recovering concentrated 1-butanol of at least 80 wt% from dilute aqueous solution of about 1 wt%, resulting in recovery of highly concentrated butanol from low-concentrated aqueous solution of butanol through membrane separation otherwise known as pervaporation. The use of the new technology is expected to reduce the recovery of butanol by 50 to 70% of that required with conventional separation membrane methods. The new technology is still sometimes away from its commercialization, as further research is underway to improve its performance.
