A commercial silica water selective membrane was evaluated experimentally. Additionally, its potential application in the synthesis of 1,1-diethoxybutane was studied from the process intensification point of view. The membrane performance was evaluated experimentally, at different compositions and temperatures, by measuring the flux and permeate composition of binary and ternary mixtures. The effect of composition and temperature on the species permeances was also studied. For ethanol and butyraldehyde the permeances depend only on the temperature, following an Arrhenius equation; while for the water, its permeance depends on both temperature and composition, following a modified Arrhenius equation. Altogether, the permeation data obtained in the present work combined with reaction and adsorption data from previous works allowed a comparison, by simulation, between the PermSMBR and simulated moving bed reactor (SMBR) for the synthesis of 1,1-diethoxybutane. Results showed that the PermSMBR, operating at 50 degrees C, presents an improvement of about 7% in both productivity (34.3 kg(DEB)I(day. L.(catalyst))) and desorbent consumption (1.73 L-Eth/Kg(DEB)).