Study on Pervaporation Membranes for Removing Methanol from C_5 or Methyl Tert-butyl Ether Mixtures

Several pervaporation membranes, cellulose acetate (CA), polyvinylbutyral (PVB), poly(MMA-co-AA), MMA-AA-BA, CA/PVB blend and CA/poly(MMA-co-AA) blend, were prepared, and their pervaporation properties were evaluated by separation of methanol/C5 or methanol/MTBE (methyl tert-butyl ether). The results shows that the CA composite membrane has a high separation performance (flux Jmenthanol =350g.m-2.h-1 and separation factor a > 400) for methanol/C5 mixtures, and the pervaporation characteristics of MMA-AA-BA copolymer membranes changes with the ratio of copolymer. For CA/poly(MMA-co-AA) blend membrane, the pervaporation performance is improved in comparison with CA or poly(MMA-co-AA) membrane. From the experiment of CA/PVB blend membranes for methanol/MTBE mixture, it is found that the compatibility of blends may affect the separation features of blend membrane.

Enhancing Dehydration Performance of Isopropanol by Introducing Intermediate Layer into Sodium Alginate Nanofibrous Composite Pervaporation Membrane

A novel three-tier composite membrane based on highly porous nanofibrous substrate was demonstrated for efficient iso-propanol dehydration by pervaporation.Here,polyethyleneimine(PEI)modified graphene oxide(GO)sheets were vacuum-assistant assembled onto porous electrospun polyacrylonitrile(PAN)nanofibrous substrate to achieve a smooth,hydrophilic and compact PEI-GO intermediate layer.The introduction of PEI chains endowed GO interlayer with sufficient interaction for bonding adjacent GO nanosheets to enhance stability in water/isopropanol mixture and also with the ascended inter-lamellar space to improve the water-sorption ability due to the abundant active amino groups.Benefiting from PEI-GO layer,a defect-free sodium alginate(SA)skin layer could be facilely manufactured with elaborately controlled thickness as thin as possible in order to reduce mass transfer resistant and enhance permeability maximally.Meanwhile,the interlayer would also contribute to enhance interfacial adhesion to promote the structure integrity of three-tier thin-film nanofibrous composite(TFNC)membrane in pervaporation dehydration process.After fine-tuning of membrane preparation process,the SA/PEI(75)-GO-60/PAN TFNC membrane exhibited competitive pervaporation performance with the permeate flux of 2009 g/m2 h and the separation factor of 1276 operated at 70°C for dehydration of 90 wt%isopropanol solution.The unique three-tier composite membrane structure suggested an effective and facile approach to design novel membrane structure for further improvement of pervaporation performance.

An asymmetric membrane of polyimide 6FDA-BDAF and its pervaporation desulfurization for n-heptane/thiophene mixtures

Polyimide（PI） is a type of important membrane material. A soluble polymer was synthesized from 4,4′-（hexafluoroisopropylidene） diphthalic anhydride（6FDA） and 2,2-bis[4-（4-aminophenoxy） phenyl] hexafluoropropane（BDAF） by the two-step polymerization method. The polymer was proved to be polyimide 6FDA-BDAF by the Fourier transform infrared（FT-IR）, the 1H-NMR and ^（19）F-NMR spectra. An asymmetric membrane was prepared with the synthesized polyimide 6FDA-BDAF, it was porous in the 50 μm height bulk and dense in a 3–5 μm height surface. The membrane was used to separate n-heptane/thiophene mixtures by pervaporation with sulfur（S） contents from 50 to 900 μg g^（–1）. The total flux was enlarged from 7.96 to 37.61 kg m^（–2） h^（–1） with temperature increasing from 50 to 90°C. The membrane＇s enrichments factor for thiophene were about 3.13 and dependent on the experimental conditions. The experimental results demonstrated that polyimide 6FDA-BDAF would be a potential membrane material for desulfurization and controlled release of the S-containing fertilizer.

Membrane materials in the pervaporation separation of aromatic/aliphatic hydrocarbon mixtures—A review

The separation of aromatic/aliphatic hydrocarbon mixtures is a significant process in chemical industry, but challenged in some cases. Compared with conventional separation technologies, pervaporation is quite promising in terms of its economical, energy-saving, and eco-friendly advantages. However, this technique has not been used in industry for separating aromatic/aliphatic mixtures yet. One of the main reasons is that the separation performance of existed pervaporation membranes is unsatisfactory. Membrane material is an important factor that affects the separation performance. This review provides an overview on the advances in studying membrane materials for the pervaporation separation of aromatic/aliphatic mixtures over the past decade. Explored pristine polymers and their hybrid materials(as hybrid membranes) are summarized to highlight their nature and separation performance. We anticipate that this review could provide some guidance in the development of new materials for the aromatic/aliphatic pervaporation separation.

Synthesis,characterization and application of PVA/ionic liquid mixed matrix membranes for pervaporation dehydration of isopropanol

In this study,polyvinyl alcohol(PVA)–ionic liquid(IL) membranes were prepared for the separation of isopropyl alcohol(IPA)–water azeotropic mixtures by pervaporation.PVA-IL composite membranes were prepared by simple solvent evaporation method using four ILs,viz.,1-n-butyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride(BMIMCl),1-hexyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride(HMIMCl),1-hexyl-3-methylimidazolium tetra fluoroborate(HMIMBF4) and 1-octyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride(OMIMCl).Three ILs were used to study the effect of alkyl chain on the pervaporation performance.The study had focused on the effect feed water concentration from 10%–40%and effect of feed temperature from 50–80°C.Physiochemical properties of all the membranes were studied using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy(FTIR),scanning electron microscopy(SEM) and contact angle measurement.The Arrhenius activation energies for permeation were estimated to be in the range 4–12 kJ·mol-1 from the temperature dependent permeation values.

Preparation and Characterization of Silicone Rubber Membrane

Pervaporation membrane with preferential permeation for organiccompounds over water was prepared and characterized. Selection ofmembrane material and the effects of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS),cross-linker, and catalyst concentrations on performances ofpervaporation membrane at room temperature were discussed. Inaddition, the time of cross-linking, and the kinds of basic plate inthe process of preparation were tested. The formulation ofpervaporation membrane material was determined.

Evaluation of hollow fiber T-type zeolite membrane modules for ethanol dehydration

This work presents the design of hollow fiber T-type zeolite membrane modules with different geometric configurations. The module performances were evaluated by pervaporation dehydration of ethanol/water mixtures. Strong concentration polarization was found for the modules with big membrane bundles. The concentration polarization was enhanced at high temperature due to the higher water permeation flux. The increase of feed flow could improve water permeation flux for the membrane modules with small membrane bundle.Computational fluid dynamics was used to visualize the flow field distribution inside of the modules with different configurations. The membrane module with seven bundles exhibited highest separation efficiency due to the uniform distribution of flow rate. The packing density could be 10 times higher than that of the tubular membrane module. The hollow fiber membrane module exhibited good stability for ethanol dehydration.

Process Design of Continuous-Flow Pervaporation Separation for Alcohol Dehydration

The separation characteristics of the PVA-CS (polyvinyl alcohol-chitosan) blended composite membrane for dehydration of ethanol-water mixture are examined. The relationships of flux and separation factor with the feed concentration and operation temperature are established. Using this correlated equation, the continuous-flow pervaporation process about 500 kilolitres/year dehydrated ethanol is designed. The numbers of stage and reheater are calculated by stage-by-stage method for two kinds of cascades: one with equal membrane area and the other with 10℃ of temperature decrement per section. The results show that when the numbers of stage and reheater are the same, the cascade with 10℃ of temperature decrement has more advantages than that with equal membrane area. The influences of feed concentration and flow rate on the numbers of stage and reheater in the cascades are discussed.