Ethanol-selective membrane for reverse osmosis of ethanol/water mixture

✍ Scribed by Shinobu Tanimura; Shin-ichi Nakao; Shoji Kimura

• Publisher: American Institute of Chemical Engineers
• Year: 1990
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 181 KB
• Volume: 36
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0001-1541
• DOI: 10.1002/aic.690360719

✦ Synopsis

For the separation of ethanol/water by pervaporation, there are two kinds of membranes: ethanol-permselective and waterpermselective membranes. In most cases, water selectively permeate through the membrane from the mixture. However, a limited number of membranes have been reported to have ethanol permselectivity (Kimura and Nomura, 1983; Nagase et al., 1990).

Considering the similarity in the transport mechanism of pervaporation and reverse osmosis, selectivity of both cases should be similar. Many reverse osmosis membranes, which reject ethanol, have water permselectivity in pervaporation. However, only one report has been made on an ethanolpermselective reverse osmosis membrane with a very limited ethanol selectivity (rejection of water was 0.0003[ -1) (Hashida et al., 1984).

Recently, Nagase et al. ( ) obtained an ethanolpermselective membrane with an excellent pervaporation separation factor. This result strongly suggests the need to investigate its nature in the reverse osmosis condition. And our experimental results show that this membrane has ethanol selectivity.