Exxonmobil Research and Engineering Company

Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha

Corning Incorporated

George L Kellogg

Randall David Partridge

Robert P Lucchesi

David T Ferrughelli

Yoshihiro Iwashita

Takanori Ueda

Kenneth Joseph Drury

Richard Bergman

Paul Oakley Johnson

George P Walchuk

A fuel separation method by which auxiliary fuel is separated from blended gasoline fuel for a flexible fuel vehicle capable of using ethanol-blended gasoline fuel, the method including the following steps (a) and (b): (a) a step in which, when the ethanol concentration is low, the blended gasoline fuel is separated by a polar separating membrane member at a relatively high separation temperature to obtain, at the permeation side of the membrane, a first auxiliary fuel enriched with the aromatic gasoline components and ethanol component, and (b) a step in which, when the ethanol concentration is high, the blended gasoline fuel is separated by a polar separating membrane member at a relatively low second separation temperature to obtain, at the permeation side of the membrane, a second auxiliary fuel enriched with the non-aromatic high-volatile gasoline components.

Fuel separation method

The present invention pertains to a pervaporation membrane process for the separation of high octane fuel components from a gasoline feed stream comprising feeding a mixed phase vapor-liquid feed to a cyclone separation means to separate the liquid from the vapor, then sending the saturated vapor to the membrane, thereby extending the useful life of the membrane.

Membrane separation process using mixed vapor-liquid feed

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Hector, NY, United States of America

George L Kellogg