Abstract

Pervaporation is a membrane-based unit process for separating volatile chemicals. It is currently the preferred method for the dehydration of solvents, particularly alcohols, past the azeotropic point but is also used for dehydrating esters, ethers, ketones, and organic acids. Fast growing applications include separation of methanol from organic azeotropes, on-line removal of water from condensation reactions and debottlenecking of distillation processes. Promising new applications include aliphatic–aromatic separations, gasoline desulfurization and dehydration of hydrocarbons.

The technology described includes an overview of membrane and module types as well as common equipment configurations for various applications of pervaporation and vapor permeation in the pharmaceutical, fine chemical and chemical industries.