A novel simple and efficient procedure for the pervaporation transport study of binary mixtures through polymeric membranes: tested systems propanol isomers—water–polyethylene membrane

Abstract

A novel simple and efficient procedure for the study of binary mixtures pervaporation transport through polymer membranes is reported. The basic idea is a gradual increase of one component concentration in the feed mixture instead of time-consuming repetitive measurements of several solutions of different compositions. Presented procedure called "component addition method" allows obtaining the required experimental data much faster and easier. The study of the transport behavior of propanol isomers (propan-1-ol and propan-2-ol)/water mixtures during the pervaporation through a polyethylene membrane was performed using the proposed novel method. The effects of temperature, feed composition and the shape of the isomer molecules were investigated. Higher temperature effect on pervaporation transport of propan-2-ol was registered. Lower mass fluxes and diffusion coefficients of propan-2-ol for all experimental temperatures were found; the reason may be the more branched molecular structure. With respect to the feed composition, an interesting trend of propanols transport parameters were obtained; increasing water content in the feed caused the slight diffusion coefficient increase and the mass flux decrease for both isomers; however, in the concentration range 30–70 wt% the flux decrease was slower than in other regions.