Progress on Silica Pervaporation Membranes in Solvent Dehydration and Solvent Recovery Processes

Abstract

Separation processes aimed at recovering the solvent from effluent streams offer a means for establishing a circular economy. Conventional technologies such as distillation are energy-intensive, inefficient and suffer from high operating and maintenance costs. Pervaporation based membrane separation overcomes these challenges and in conjunction with the utilization of inorganic membranes derived from non-toxic, sufficiently abundant and hence expendable, silica, allows for high operating temperatures and enhanced chemical and structural integrity. Membrane-based separation is predicted to dominate the industry in the coming decades, as the process is being understood at a deeper level, leading to the fabrication of tailored membranes for niche applications. The current review aims to compile and present the extensive and often dispersive scientific investigations to the reader and highlight the current scenario as well as the limitations suffered by this mature field. In addition, viable alternative to the conventional methodologies, as well as other rival materials in existence to achieve membrane-based pervaporation are highlighted.

Novel Polyelectrolyte Complex Membranes Containing Carboxymethyl Cellulose–Gelatin for Pervaporation Dehydration of Azeotropic Bioethanol for Biofuel

“…Among the separation techniques, pervaporation (PV) is quite an effective method for the dehydration of organic substances, especially for separating azeotropic mixtures [ 6 , 7 ]. It has numerous benefits over the traditional distillation process, such as low cost, low energy intake, eco-friendly, and simplest operation [ 8 , 9 ].…”

Transmission of sodium chloride in PDMS membrane during Pervaporation based on polymer relaxation

“…Non-pressure-driven membrane processes, such as membrane distillation (MD) and Pervaporation (PV), are also attractive in the treatment of wastewater with dissolved solids, and have a strong resistance to fouling [7]. In addition, there has been many researches on separation and recovery of organics from water in the PV process [8,9].…”

“…Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) [12], graphene oxide (GO) [13], mxene [11] and other two-dimensional hydrophilic materials have been used in pervaporation desalination, salt rejection for high-concentration saline wastewater can reach 99.99%~100% [14,15]. Apart from its emerging application in desalination, PV has been extensively used for liquid separations, such as dehydration of organic solvents, evaporation of volatile organics from aqueous solutions, and separation of organic mixtures [8,9]. As a typical organophilic material, polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) is widely used to recover organics in water due to its easy preparation and low cost.…”

A Review on Mixed Matrix Membranes for Solvent Dehydration and Recovery Process

“…Solvent dehydration and solvent recovery by pervaporation (PV) is attracting extensive attention as PV is a highly efficient and low energy-consuming process [1,2]. It is the process of the separation of dilute liquid mixtures through partial vaporization, with the driving force being the chemical potential across a membrane [3].…”

“…However, they have the limitation of commercial unavailability. For example, poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) has also been widely used, but it requires high activation energies [11] and has the problem of swelling which reduces the separation factor and selectivity [1]. Thus, based on previous research, PDMS has been considered as the state-of-the-art hydrophobic polymer to be used in making PV membranes due to its excellent performance and stability [4].…”