Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Aug 23;47(6):1389-1406.
doi: 10.55730/1300-0527.3622. eCollection 2023.

Poly(vinyl alcohol)/ZSM-5 zeolite mixed matrix membranes for pervaporation dehydration of ethanol and n-propanol

Ji-Ting Wang  1 , Zhen Huang  1 , Ya-Tong Zhu  1 , Si Ning Wang  1
Affiliations

Poly(vinyl alcohol)/ZSM-5 zeolite mixed matrix membranes for pervaporation dehydration of ethanol and n-propanol

Ji-Ting Wang et al. Turk J Chem. .

Abstract

In this study, mixed matrix membranes (MMMs) composed of poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) and porous ZSM-5 zeolite are thoroughly investigated for concentrating alcohols of ethanol and n-propanol via dewatering pervaporation. The effects of the zeolite content (10-30 wt.%), feed composition (5-30 wt.% water), and feed temperature (50-90 °C) on the pervaporation flux/separation factor and component permeance/selectivity of these MMMs are examined in detail. These MMMs achieve higher separation efficiency and pervaporation flux than their pure PVA counterparts as expected, even if the dehydration results strongly depend on the pervaporation conditions. The disparity in pervaporation performances acquired for different alcohol solutions may be understood in terms of polarity and molecular size, which differ among these alcohol molecules. The PVA/zeolite MMM of 20 wt.% ZSM-5 zeolite content performs substantially stably at 60 °C for the feed with 80 wt.% alcohol while maintaining separation factors of 660 or 820 and total fluxes of 970 or 825 g/m2h for dewatering water/ethanol and water/n-propanol, respectively. Thus, our membranes appear to be technically feasible for practical alcohol dehydration uses.

Keywords: Poly(vinyl alcohol); alcohol dehydration; mixed matrix membrane; pervaporation; zeolite.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Schematic of experimental set up used in the present work for pervaporation.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Nitrogen adsorption/desorption isotherms and SEM image of ZSM-5 zeolite.
Figure 3
Figure 3
FTIR spectra of PVA/ZSM-5 zeolite MMMs and pure PVA membrane.
Figure 4
Figure 4
XRD spectra of PVA/ZSM-5 zeolite MMMs and pure PVA membrane.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Swelling results (DS) of various PVA/zeolite MMMs.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Effect of zeolite content on pervaporation performances of PVA/zeolite MMMs for feed with ETA content of 80 wt.% at 60 °C: a) total flux and separation factor, b) permeate water concentration and water flux, c) water and ETA permeances, and d) selectivity and PSI.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Effect of zeolite content on pervaporation performances of PVA/zeolite MMMs for feed with NPA content of 80 wt.% at 60 °C: a) total flux and separation factor, b) permeate water concentration and water flux, c) water and NPA permeances, and d) selectivity and PSI.
Figure 8
Figure 8
Effect of feed ETA composition on pervaporation performances of the Z-20 MMM at 60 °C: a) total flux and separation factor, b) permeate water concentration and water flux, c) water and NPA permeances, and d) selectivity and PSI.
Figure 9
Figure 9
Effect of feed NPA composition on pervaporation performances of the Z-20 MMM at 60 °C: a) total flux and separation factor, b) permeate water concentration and water flux, c) water and NPA permeances, and d) selectivity and PSI.
Figure 10
Figure 10
Effect of feed temperature on pervaporation performances of the Z-20 MMM for feed with ETA content of 80 wt.%: a) total flux and separation factor, b) permeate water concentration and water flux, c) water and ETA permeances, and d) selectivity and PSI.
Figure 11
Figure 11
Effect of feed temperature on pervaporation performances of the Z-20 MMM for feed with NPA content of 80 wt.%: a) total flux and separation factor, b) permeate water concentration and water flux, c) water and NPA permeances, and d) selectivity and PSI.
Figure 12
Figure 12
Operating stability of the Z-20 MMM for the dehydration of 80 wt.% ETA (a) and NPA (b) aqueous solutions at 60 °C.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Wang S, Dai Y, Ma ZY, Qi HQ, Chen ZR, et al. Application of energy-saving hybrid distillation-pervaporation process for recycling organics from wastewater based on thermoeconomic and environmental analysis. Journal of Cleaner Production. 2021;294:126297. doi: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2021.126297. - DOI
    1. Tavan Y, Hosseini SH. A novel integrated process to break the ethanol/water azeotrope using reactive distillation - Part I: Parametric study. Separation and Purification Technology. 2013;118:455–462. doi: 10.1016/j.seppur.2013.07.036. - DOI
    1. Devi VKPJ, Sai PST, Balakrishnan AR. Heterogeneous azeotropic distillation for the separation of n-propanol + water mixture using n-propyl acetate as entrainer. Fluid Phase Equilibria. 2017;447:1–11. doi: 10.1016/j.fluid.2017.05.012. - DOI
    1. Wu YM, Meng DP, Yao D, Liu XY, Xu Y, et al. Mechanism analysis, economic optimization, and environmental assessment of hybrid extractive distillation–pervaporation processes for dehydration of n-propanol. ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering. 2020;8:4561–4571. doi: 10.1021/acssuschemeng.0c00263. - DOI
    1. Cui PZ, Zhao F, Yao D, Ma ZY, Li SH, et al. Energy-saving exploration of mixed solvent extractive distillation combined with thermal coupling or heat pump technology for the separation of an azeotrope containing low-carbon alcohol. Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Research. 2020;59:13204–13219. doi: 10.1021/acs.iecr.0c02225. - DOI

LinkOut - more resources