GOVERNMENT ENGINEERING

COLLEGE BHARUCH

Name : Vasava Kishan (160140105057)

Vasava Vaibhav (160140105058)
Vasava Yash (160140105060)
Vekariya Gunjan (160140105061)
Viradiya Jenish (160140105062)
Subject : Advance Separation Technique
Topic : Pervaporation
 What is Pervaporation
• Pervaporation is an energy efficient combination of
membrane permeation and evaporation.
• It is used for the separation of mixtures of liquids by
partial vaporization through a non-porous or porous
membrane.
• A polymeric or zeolite membrane usually serves the
separating barrier for the process.
• A pervaporation process is used if the feed to the
membrane is Iiquid.
 Characteristics of Pervaporation

• The process uses low energy of consumption;

• As entrainers are not required, there is no
contamination in the system;
• The equilibrium of vapour/liquid does not interfere
on the process functions;
• When operating, the permeate needs to be volatile.
 Mechanism of separation
• The pervaporation can be operated in distinct flow process:
batch or continuous,
• During the process, the feed flows along one side of the
membrane, while one of the components of the feed
(permeate) preferentially passes through the membrane.
• On the opposite side of the membrane, the permeate is in the
vapour phase. The phase change from liquid to vapour.
• To ensure the continuous mass transport through the
membrane, very low absolute pressures are maintained at the
downstream side of membrane by a sweeping gas or a
vacuum operation.
Mechanism of separation
 Mechanism of Separation
• The mass transport across the membrane is governed by
three fundamental processes:
• Sorption of the permeate in the upstream surface of the
membrane.
• Diffusion of the permeate across the membrane matrix.
• Desorption of the permeate into a vapor phase at the
downstream face of the membrane.
 Membrane Types
• Hydrophilic- used to remove water from org. sol.
• Organophilic- recover organics from solutions,
usually used to separate organic mixtures of 2 or
more components
• Hdrophobic- used to separate volatile organic
components from water
Membranes are typically made from Polymers, such as
Polyvinyl alcohol, but recent developments have led
to the creation of ceramic membranes, Such as
Zeolite A.
 Factors Affecting Pervaporation
• Temperature- As temperature has an effect on partial pressures,
which in turn, affects the flux, higher fluxes can be obtained at
higher temps
• Selectivity- The selectiveness of the desired permeate to go
through the membrane versus the other chemicals in solution, this
is typically done by controlling the size of e holes in the membrane.
• Feed concentration - Concentration of the preferred permeate in
solution, higher concentrations means more of the solution moving
through and vice versa.
• Membrane thickness-inversely proportional to the overall flux (the
thinner the membrane, the greater the flux, but the lower the
selectivity)
• Partial pressure- provides the driving force for moving the
permeate through the membrane, a higher pressure difference will
force more molecules through
Dehydration of Alcohol
 Dehydration Of Ethyl Alcohol
• Pervaporation find its most important application in the
dehydration of ethyl alcohol. A fermentation broth usually
contains 5 to 10% of ethyl alcohol. in conventional process,
it is concentrated and dehydrated by distillation.
• However ethyl alcohol forms an zoetrope with water at
ethyl alcohol concentration of 95.6 wt%, and distillation
becomes ineffective at removing the trace amount of
water.
• Azeotropic distillation with some additives, normally either
cyclohexane or benzene, may be useful for dehydration but
energy consumption of this process is very high . moreover
,this process is capital intensive.
 Industrial Applications

• The treatment of wastewater contaminated

with organics.
• Pollution control applications.
• Recovery of valuable organic compounds from
process side streams.
• Separation of 99.5% pure ethanol-water
solutions.
• Harvesting of organic substances from
fermented broth.