CFD Modeling of the Dehydration of Biofuels with the 2D MXene Membrane using the Pervaporation Process

MXene membranes perform well in biofuel separation due to their excellent hydrophilicity, flexibility, and mechanical strength. For the first time, computational fluid dynamics was used to model the dehydration of ethanol through the pervaporation system by the MXene membrane. We discretized the momentum and continuity equations using finite element methods and predicted the mass transport. Experimental results and model data were in good agreement (less than 10 %). The feed velocity, feed concentration, and membrane thickness all had positive effects on the separation factors while the temperature had a decreasing effect. This model s efficiency has decreased by 35 % after increasing the feed flow rate by 10 times. In addition, the separation factor increases tenfold when temperature is raised from 25 to 70 °C.