Pervaporative Denitrogenation of Pyrrole/n-heptane as Model Oil using MoO3 -PEBAX/PAN membrane

Abstract

The environmentally obnoxious nature of Nitrogen in fuel oils requires serious attention for its removal. In this work, a novel hybrid matrix membrane was prepared by introducing MoO3 nanoparticles into poly (ether-block-amide) (PEBAX2533) and was in turn used for the pervaporative separation of pyrrole/n-heptane mixtures. The interactions between the membrane, pyrrole and n-heptane were investigated by swelling experiments. Pervaporative separation performance of PEBAX membranes revealed higher selectivity for pyrrole from its mixture with n-heptane, which further increased with increasing MoO3 contents in membrane along-with correspondingly increasing the total flux and the separation factor as well. At 2000 µg·g− 1 pyrrole concentration and 30°C temperature, the total flux and the separation factor reached the maximum values of 2.46 kg•m− 2•h− 1 and 17.58, respectively. Attributed to the outstanding separation performance of PEBAX membranes, this work may provide a useful insight into the viable removal of nitrogenous compounds from gasoline via pervaporation.