Pervaporation separation of a ternary azeotrope containing ethyl acetate, ethanol and water using a buckypaper supported ionic liquid membrane

In this study, the pervaporation separation characteristic of a buckypaper supported ionic liquid membrane (BP-SILM-70) in a ternary azeotropic mixture of ethyl acetate/ethanol/water was investigated. The sorption characteristics of the membrane were assessed through a liquid sorption study, and the preference of the membrane to interact with the components in the feed mixtures was evaluated based on binary interaction parameters. Prior to the pervaporation of the ternary mixture system, pervaporation studies of binary mixture systems composed of ethyl acetate/water, ethanol/water and ethyl acetate/ethanol were performed to evaluate the inter-molecular interaction between these components and their tendency to interact with the BP-SILM-70. The membrane was subsequently applied to the pervaporation separation of the ternary azeotrope system, and the effects of the feed temperature and downstream pressure on the pervaporation performance of the membrane were systemically investigated. The BP-SILM-70 exhibited a good pervaporation performance with a total permeation flux of 385.33 g.m(-2).h(-1) and a separation factor as high as 247 at a temperature of 30 degrees C and a downstream pressure of 0.667 kPa. The pervaporation result suggests that the use of BP-SILM-70 has great potential to attain a good balance in the trade-off between the permeation flux and the separation factor. (c) 2016 The Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.