Fabrication, Properties, Performances, and Separation Application of Polymeric Pervaporation Membranes: A Review

Abstract

<jats:p>Membrane separation technologies have attracted great attentions in chemical engineering, food science, analytical science, and environmental science. Compared to traditional membrane separation techniques like reverse osmosis (RO), ultrafiltration (UF), electrodialysis (ED) and others, pervaporation (PV)-based membrane separation shows not only mutual advantages such as small floor area, simplicity, and flexibility, but also unique characteristics including low cost as well as high energy and separation efficiency. Recently, different polymer, ceramic and composite membranes have shown promising separation applications through the PV-based techniques. To show the importance of PV for membrane separation applications, we present recent advances in the fabrication, properties and performances of polymeric membranes for PV separation of various chemicals in petrochemical, desalination, medicine, food, environmental protection, and other industrial fields. To promote the easy understanding of readers, the preparation methods and the PV separation mechanisms of various polymer membranes are introduced and discussed in detail. This work will be helpful for developing novel functional polymer-based membranes and facile techniques to promote the applications of PV techniques in different fields.</jats:p>

Numerical Investigation of Fabricated MWCNTs/Polystyrene Nanofibrous Membrane for DCMD

“…Water shortage crisis is now becoming more alarming concern due to the rapid increase in world population, industrialization, and limited freshwater resources [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 ]. United Nations as well as world health organization reported that over 50% of the countries worldwide will suffer from water shortage problems while millions of people already suffered or are suffering from fatal health issues due to contaminated water [ 6 ].…”

Removal of sulfur‐containing compounds from Fluid Catalytic Cracking unit (FCC) gasoline by pervaporation process: Effects of variations in feed characteristics and mass transfer properties of the membrane

“…Pervaporation is a membrane‐based process generally used for the separation of different volatile compounds from their liquid mixtures. The pervaporation process has been widely used for the separation of organic compounds from water‐based azeotropic solutions, which are difficult to separate by traditional distillation processes 1 such as tetrahydrofuran/water, 2 1,4‐dioxane/water, 3 and isopropyl alcohol/water 4,5 . Different components present in the solutions have different solubility in the hydrophobic/hydrophilic membrane, responsible for the separation 1 .…”

“…The pervaporation process has been widely used for the separation of organic compounds from water‐based azeotropic solutions, which are difficult to separate by traditional distillation processes 1 such as tetrahydrofuran/water, 2 1,4‐dioxane/water, 3 and isopropyl alcohol/water 4,5 . Different components present in the solutions have different solubility in the hydrophobic/hydrophilic membrane, responsible for the separation 1 . The pervaporation process is also used to separate different organic compounds from their azeotropic solutions, such as n ‐hexane/acetone, 6 chlorinated hydrocarbon/acetone, 7 toluene/methanol, 8 methanol/methyl tert ‐butyl ether, 9 and sulfur containing hydrocarbons from petroleum products 10–14 .…”

Homogeneous Composite Nonwoven Support for High Temperature‐Resistant Separation Membranes

“…Membrane separation technology, as an important new technology in the 21st century, is widely utilized across various industries, such as water and wastewater treatment, food and beverage processes, pharmaceutical and medical applications, chemical processing, and other industrial separation or purification applications. [ 1,2 ] Many separation membranes need to operate at high‐temperature environment. For example, for biochemistry separation in the biochemical industry, the membrane is required to bear 120 °C for sterilization; the temperature range of 70–80 °C is needed to prevent biological contamination in the sugar industry; the temperature of the effluents from a textile bleaching and dyeing industry can reach up to 95 °C; and the high‐temperature condensate produced in petroleum refining can reach 80–120 °C in the petrochemical industry.…”