Abstract
In recent years gas separation and pervaporation have gained considerable technical and commercial interest as efficient methods for the separation of gases or the recovery of volatile organic solvents from vapor and liquid mixtures. Both processes are rather similar in their basic principle. As in any other membrane separation processes, the membranes to be used in gas separation and pervaporation should have high fluxes and high selectivities for the components to be separated. Membranes used in gas and vapor separation are generally made from homogeneous polymer films and their selectivity is determined by the solubility and diffusivity of the various components in the polymer matrix. To obtain high fluxes the membranes are generally made as asymmetric structures with a thin homogeneous polymer layer on a porous support. Because of boundary layer effects the properties of the porous support structure as well as the module design have a significant effect on the overall efficiency of the processes. In this paper the basics of mass transport in gas separation and pervaporation membranes are briefly reviewed. Selection criteria for polymers to be used for the preparation of the selective barrier and porous support are given. The effect of the support porosity and pore size distribution on the overall transmembrane flux and its mass separation properties are discussed. The development of a composite capillary membrane and its use in recovering organic solvents from waste air streams and aqueous solutions is described.
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