Economic and Environmental Evaluation for Purification of Diisopropyl Ether and Isopropyl Alcohol via Combining Distillation and Pervaporation Membrane

Diisopropyl ether and isopropyl alcohol have attracted interest as promising raw materials. Finding an environmentally friendly and sustainable production is a goal that people are constantly pursuing. Extractive distillation is a traditional technique for separation of the mixture diisopropyl ether/isopropyl alcohol/water. The traditional technique should be improved due to its high energy consumption. In this work, feed preheating and hybrid membrane distillation are explored as two alternatives for separation and evaluated from the economic, environment, and human health points of view. Two different solvents (ethylene glycol and dimethyl sulfoxide) are considered and compared. To analyzethe thermodynamic efficiency, condenser exergy analysis, stage enthalpy, and exergy loss are studied. Life cycle assessment is used to assess the effects of extractive distillation, feed preheating, and mixed membrane distillation on human health and the environment. In terms of energy consumption and the total annual cost, hybrid membrane distillation is superior to extractive distillation and feed preheating. At the same time, hybrid membrane distillation produces the lowest human toxicity and environmental impact. Thus, in the process of separation, the combination of distillation and pervaporation membrane should be considered because it is an environmentally friendly process.