Membrane-Based Corn Ethanol Refinery

Distillation and molecular sieve are conventional ways to remove water from ethanol blends. Distillation is primarily limited by the azeotrope of the ethanol water blend. Molecular sieve operation relies on frequent regeneration and recycles upwards of 40% of the inlet flow.  Both are highly inefficient and consume large amounts of heat energy. Vaperma developed its Siftek™ membrane technology, a breakthrough technology to replace both rectification and molecular sieves. This revolutionary membrane is simple to operate and maintain. It provides a real and measurable reduction in the amount of plant heat energy required to produce ethanol. As a result the carbon footprint is also dramatically reduced.  It also lowers the amount of process water usage required in the plant.

Vaperma has teamed up with Canada's largest producer of ethanol, GreenField Ethanol  to demonstrate in a full scale ethanol plant its Siftek™ membrane technology in corn-based ethanol production.