Pervaporative removal of organics from water using hydrophobic membranes. Binary mixtures

Results of pervaporation experiments are presented for the separation of several polar and nonpolar organic solvents from their aqueous solutions. Three membranes were evaluated: a polydimethylsiloxane (PERVAP-1060) membrane, a PDMS ZSM-5 zeolite filled (PERVAP-1070) membrane, and a poly(ether-block-amide) (PEBAX-4033) membrane. The effect of feed composition on flux and selectivity was also investigated. Performance parameters of a given membrane depended both on the kind of the organic solvent and the feed composition. The PERVAP-1070 membrane exhibited the highest selectivity with a separation factor over 900 in contact with a water-butyl acetate mixture. Polar solvents like methanol were also preferentially separated from aqueous solutions, but the separation factors were close to those obtained from liquid-vapor equilibria data. Permeate fluxes of organics increased with increasing feed concentration. Synergetic effects between water and organics fluxes were also observed.