Pervaporation Recovery of n-butanol from Its Dilute Solution with Natural Rubber/Styrenebutadiene-styrene Blend Membrane

Natural rubber/styrene-butadiene-styrene (NR/SBS) membrane was prepared by solution blend, and then used for recovery of butanol from its dilute solution by pervaporation (PV). The thermodynamic and mechanical properties of NR/SBS blend membrane were characterized by TGA and tensile test, respectively. A layer of relatively dense blend membrane with the thickness of about 37 µm was closely cast on a layer of porous polyvinylidene difluoride (PVDF) support. And there was no obvious phase separation observed between the interface of two layers. Both flux and separation factor increased with increasing feed temperature. Butanol flux increased as feed concentration increased consistently. The blend membrane which got the best performance obtained membrane separation factor of 28.8 with total flux of 2695.2 g/m2h at 70 °C when feed concentration was 4.00wt%.