Pervaporation of water—ethanol through ion exchange membranes

Abstract

The performance of ion exchange membranes in sorption and pervaporation of water—ethanol has been studied as function of membrane type (ion loading) and feed composition, and has been compared with the performance of cellulose triacetate. A relatively uniform pattern of preferential water sorption for all membranes studied, reasonably excepting the H + form and CTA, contrasts sharply with distinct differences in selectivity and flux between cation exchange and anion exchange membranes. The key to an understanding of the interactions involved appears to be the activity of the sorbed ethanol, which is increased in case of cation exchange membranes, and lowered in case of anion exchange membranes. Increased ethanol activity is traced to a salting-out effect ultimately leading to phase separation within the membrane fluid, as evidenced by a disproportionately high ethanol flux and the adverse effect of selective diffusion reducing overall selectivity. Lowering the ethanol activity enhances selectivity, thus favoring anion exchange membranes for the separation under consideration. When projected to comparable thickness, anion exchange membranes are superior to cellulose triacetate, the OH − form being the most promising of the membranes studied