Teflon AF2400/Ultem composite hollow fiber membranes for alcohol dehydration by high‐temperature vapor permeation

Abstract

High‐temperature vapor permeation has a stringent requirement of membrane stability under harsh feed environments. This work reports the design of Teflon AF2400/Ultem composite hollow fiber (HF) membranes for alcohol dehydration via vapor permeation. Fabrication parameters such as Teflon concentration and coating time were systematically investigated. Interestingly, the fabricated composite HF membranes possess an unusual surface with honeycomb‐like microstructure patterns. Owing to the Teflon protective layer, the newly developed composite HF shows a promising and stable separation performance with a flux of 4265 gm−2 h−1 and a separation factor of 383 for 95% isopropanol dehydration at 125°C. The composite HF also performs well under extreme vapor feed compositions from 87 to 99 wt % isopropanol. In addition, it exhibits impressive separation performance for the dehydration of ethanol and n‐butanol. This work may provide useful insights of designing thermal‐stable and high‐performance composite polymeric membranes for vapor permeation. © 2016 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 62: 1747–1757, 2016