In this study, an engineering tool for the design and optimization of pervaporation processes is developed based on physico-chemical modelling coupled with laboratory/mini-plant experiments. The model incorporates the solution-diffusion-mechanism, polarization effects (concentration and temperature), axial dispersion, pressure drop and the temperature drop in the feed channel due to vaporizatio...

The U.S. Federal Register of April 17, 1987, contains a list of priority pollutants found at Superfund Sites. About half of these are volatile organic compounds (VOC’s), which are known to be toxic and/or carcinogenic in nature. Pervaporation is a membrane technology utilizing a dense non-porous polymeric film to separate the contaminated water from a vacuum source. A membrane is used that pref...

A resistance-in-series model is used to describe the pervaporation performance of elastomeric membranes in the removal of volatile organic components from water. Equations have been derived to describe the organic component flux as a function of feed concentration, permeability of the organic component in the membrane, membrane thickness and liquid boundary layer mass transfer coefficient. The ...

Article history: Received 14 December 2016 Received in revised form 12 May 2017 Accepted 14 May 2017 Available online 1 July 2017 Alcohol-permselectivity pervaporation has been arousing increasingly more attention in bioalcohol production due to the advantages of environmental friendliness, low energy consumption and easy coupling with fermentation process. With the intrinsic feature of larger ...

In this paper, polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) composite membranes that were supported using polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) microfiltration membrane were developed for the pervaporation (PV) of dimethyl carbonate (DMC) from a methanol solution. Experimental studies on the solubility and the diffusivity of pure DMC and methanol in the membrane were first measured. Higher DMC uptake indicates that th...

The links between chemical properties, including those relating to molecular size, solubility, hydrophobicity and vapour pressure, and rejection of model aromatic micro-pollutants by a tubular, hydrophilic polymer pervaporation membrane designed for irrigation applications were investigated. Open air experiments were conducted at room temperature for individual solutions of fluorene, naphthalen...

Copolyamides with anthrazoline units in the backbone (coPA) were synthesized and dense nonporous films were prepared by solvent evaporation. Glass transition temperature, density, and fractional free volume were determined for the dense nonporous films composed of polyamide and two of its copolymers containing 20 and 30 mol % anthrazoline units in the backbone. Transport properties of the polym...

Pervaporation (PV) is a well-established membrane technique used in separation; especially dehydration of organic solvents. Along with other parameters such as permeate pressure and feed temperature; feed composition is an important parameter, which affects separation characteristics and membrane performance in pervaporation. In this paper, the separation characteristics of a hydrophilic polyvi...

Although several separation technologies are technically capable of removing volatile products from fermentation broths, distillation remains the dominant technology. In this presentation, the status of an emerging membrane-based technology called pervaporation for the recovery of biofuels such as ethanol is reviewed and options for integrating pervaporation units with fermentors will be discus...