Dehydration of Isopropanol and Ethanol by Pervaporation Technique

Abstract

Pervaporation is an energy efficient process/technique for the evaporation of a selective component from the liquid mixture using membrane, in direct with the liquid stream. In present study an experimental setup was developed using a Pervatech Silica Based Single Tube Pervaporation Module. Experiments were performed and data was collected for the change in concentration of retentate as well as variation of permeate flux at different temperature, like 40 C and 77 C for two different alcohols ,i.e., isopropanol and 2-ethylhexanol. Vacuum on permeate side and velocity of retentate to membrane module were kept constant during all experiments. It was concluded that pervaporation process can be economically utilized for the production of dehydrated ethanol to be used in gasohol and other alcohols, replacing energy intensive and complicated azeotropic or extractive distillation processes.