SBIR Phase I: Novel Membrane for Lactate Esterification

这个小企业创新研究一期项目旨在开发一种新型的渗透蒸发膜，用于酯化反应过程中的水分离，以提高乳酸酯的产量。乳酸乙酯被大量使用，由可再生碳水化合物如玉米发酵产生。生产乳酸酯的高成本是由于酯化过程的低收率。通过提高酯化过程的效率，可以降低生产成本。为了提高该工艺的效率，提出了一种新型膜，以实现高分离和产率。从工业、商业和环境的角度来看，在乳酸酯生产中使用高效膜进行分离具有若干好处。乳酸酯等乳酸乙酯是传统有机工业溶剂的安全替代品，而传统有机工业溶剂已知会破坏臭氧层并污染地下水。

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project is aimed at developing a novel pervaporation membrane for the separation of water during esterification reaction to improve yields of lactate esters. Ethyl lactate is used in large volume and is produced from fermentation of renewable carbohydrate sources such as corn. The higher cost of manufacture of lactate esters is due to the low yield of the esterification process. The cost of the manufacture can be lowered by increasing the efficiency of the esterification process. To improve the efficiency of the process, a novel membrane is proposed to achieve high separation and yield. The use of an efficient membrane for separation in lactate ester production holds several benefits from the industrial, commercial and environmental standpoint. Lactate esters such as ethyl lactate are safe alternatives to conventional organic industrial solvents that are known to damage the ozone layer and pollute groundwater.