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Investigation Of Ethanol Dehydration In A Microscale Pervaporation Process, Sudhir Ramprasad

Doctoral Dissertations

Challenges due to surface tension effects for vaporization in microchannels have restricted the implementation of conventional separation processes that involve liquid boiling in a micro-chemical system. However, membrane separations offer a feasible alternative for exploring the advantages of liquid phase separation in micro-chemical systems. The main objective of this research was to evaluate the process intensification effects in a microscale pervaporation process with experiments involving the separation of ethanol/water using a commercially available polymer dehydration membrane.

The microchannels in the microseparator were fabricated by the dry etch process at Louisiana Tech University. Microchannel depths of 20 to 120 μm, with …