Pervaporation of aqueous alcohol mixtures through a photopolymerised composite membrane

Pervaporation of methanol-water and ethanol-water mixtures through a photopolymerised composite membrane has been investigated. Polymeric membranes have been prepared and used in pervaporation experiments to measure steady state permeation and separation characteristics. Composite membrane showed good selectivity to water in both methanol-water and ethanol-water mixtures. The most important observation is that there is good separation of methanol-water is possible with this membrane, The permeation acid separation characteristics of composite membrane have been compared with that of commercial GFT-PVA membrane which is a well-known pervaporation membrane for dehydration applications. The composite membrane exhibited good permeation and separation characteristics over the commercial membrane. From the investigation, it is clear that the composite membrane could be a potential candidate for dehydration applications in pervaporation. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.