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The study is motivated by the industrial separation problem in the fine chemical and pharmaceutical industry, that is isobutanol removal from process wastewater. There are several options for separating the isobutanol-water system. When separating on an industrial scale, it is essential that the most suitable alternative is implemented. The classical method of isobutanol-water separation is distillation. However, since the mixture forms a heteroazeotrope, only an azeotrope composition can be achieved with traditional distillation. Azeotropic distillation is a solution, the alternative is membrane separation, including pervaporation. The aim of this study is to investigate and optimize hybrid organophilic pervaporation and distillation processes for the separation of the isobutanol-water mixture. The examination is carried out in professional flowsheet simulator environment with user-added organophilic pervaporation membrane modules, phase separator and distillation column. Applying this new process, it is possible to obtain 99.9 weight% alcohol and water product from the initial 7 weight% isobutanol - 93 weight% water mixture.

In the fine chemical industries, especially in the pharmaceutical industry, production technology generates large amounts of liquid waste and industrial waste solvents. Separation of various organic substances used in industry, such as adsorbable organic halides (AOX), from industrial wastewater is an important task of environmental protection. In this work, two technologies were compared to investigate the recycling/reuse of organic material of process wastewaters. The analysis was based on real case study from fine chemical industry. The separation efficiency, operational parameters and cost analysis were carried out to examine stripping and distillation technologies. The calculation was achieved in professional flowsheet simulator environment. According to the results, it can be determined there is no significant difference in separation efficiency of wastewater output streams. However, in the case of distillation technology, the reuse of halides can be possible inside the factory, so this is the recommended procedure for environmental protection. The cost of recovery technologies is also compared with waste incineration. These calculations also demonstrate the effectiveness of the treatment methods, because with recovery technologies it is possible to obtain a reduction of up to 85% compared to incineration.