lignocellulosic banana waste, with 5.5x106 m3 s1 of flow rate, an
increase of about 28% in the enrichment factor was obtained, as
well as a 3.5 times increase in ethanol flux, which resulted in a pervaporation
index (PSI) double that achieved with the standard
mixture (62.18 vs. 29.11). One important analysis consists of the
enrichment factor. This parameter remained almost the same, indicating
a possibility that there is no flux coupling mechanism.
Shepherd et al. (2002) reported the same results using the similar
membrane and studying multicomponent model mixtures.
For the flow rate of 22.2 106 m3 s1, contrary observations
were made. All performance parameters decrease for fermentation
broth compared with model solutions. This can be a result of the
presence of by-product that at this flow rate has an influence on
the ethanol diffusion mechanism. As the flux was reduced by a
factor of 0.25 and the separation factor was reduced by a factor
of 0.43, it was concluded that the ethanol pervaporation was
minimized. This behavior could be supported by the results of