Multicomponent pervaporation process for volatile aroma compounds recovery from pomegranate juice

The present work describes the possibility of using pervaporation process to recover the pomegranate aroma compounds from an actual pomegranate juice and a model aroma solution. Four different chemicals representing four major kinds of aroma compounds, namely, 3-methyl butanal, isopentyl acetate, n-hexanol and α-ionone, were utilized in this work. Three POMS membranes and two PDMS membranes were tested for pervaporation and compared for their separation performance. The influence of various operating parameters such as feed flow rate, feed temperature and permeate pressure on the permeation flux and aroma compounds enrichment factor was investigated. Feed flow rate was shown to have no significant effect on both total flux and aroma enrichment factor, whereas feed temperature and permeate pressure had highly significant effects. An increase in feed temperature led to higher flux and enrichment factor. As permeate pressure increased, the flux and enrichment factor of some aroma compounds decreased. Some of the aroma compounds showed higher enrichment factor at higher permeate pressures. Finally, the activation energy of permeation and the membrane permeability for each aroma compound were determined.     

Blended chitosan and polyvinyl alcohol membranes for the pervaporation dehydration of isopropanol

Homogeneous membranes were prepared by casting the solution of blended chitosan and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) on a glass plate. The percent weight of chitosan in the membrane was varied from 0 to 100%. The membrane thickness was in the range of 15–30 μm. The membranes were heat treated at 150 °C for an hour. After that the membranes were crosslinked by glutaraldehyde and sulfuric acid in acetone aqueous solution. The membranes were tested at 30–60 °C for dehydration performance of 50–95% isopropanol aqueous solutions. At around 90% of isopropanol in the feed mixture, permeate flux increased whereas the percent of water in permeate tended to decrease when the feed temperature increased for all membranes, except that the water content in permeate from the membrane containing 75 wt.% chitosan remained constant. The swelling degree in water and the total flux increased with increasing chitosan content in membranes. The effect of temperature on permeate flux followed the Arrhenius relationship. The permeate flux decreased when isopropanol in the feed increased for all membranes. However, water content in permeate and isopropanol concentration in the feed formed complex relationship for different chitosan content membranes. Sorption did not appear to have significant effects on separation. The membrane containing chitosan 75% performed the best. For a feed solution containing 90% isopropanol at 60 °C, the permeate flux was 644 g/m² h with water content of nearly 100% in the permeate. At 55% isopropanol in the feed at 60 °C, the permeate flux was 3812 g/m² h. In the range of 55–95% of isopropanol in the feed, the water content in permeate was more than 99.5%. This membrane showed very excellent performance with good mechanical strength. It is promising to develop this membrane for industrial uses.     

Separation of 2-butanol–water mixtures by pervaporation through PVA–NYL 66 blend membranes

Blend membranes of poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) and nylon 66 (NYL) were synthesized and crosslinked with glutaraldehyde (GA) and assessed for their suitability in dehydrating 2-butanol by pervaporation (PV). These blends were subjected to sorption studies to determine the extent of interaction and degree of swelling in pure liquids as well as binary mixtures. Wide-angle X-ray diffraction (WAXD) and thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA) were carried out to investigate changes in crystallinity and thermal stability, respectively. The effect of experimental parameters such as feed water concentration, permeate pressure and barrier thickness on membrane flux and selectivity was evaluated. The membranes were found to have good potential for breaking the azeotrope of 27.6 wt.% water with a flux of 3.07 kg/m² h 10 μm and selectivity of 26.5. Selectivity was found to improve with decreasing feed water concentration and increasing membrane thickness, whereas opposite trends were observed in case of flux. Higher permeate pressure caused a reduction in both flux and selectivity. These effects were clearly elucidated.     

醇／水混合液分离用聚乙烯醇复合膜的渗透汽化特性

制备了聚乙烯醇（ＰＶＡ）／聚丙烯睛（ＰＡＮ）渗透汽化复合膜，研究了交联剂用量、底膜结构、进料液组成、操作温度等因素对膜的渗透汽化性能的影响．发现ＰＶＡ／ＰＡＮ复合膜对水／醇混合液表现为水优先透过，进料液中乙醇浓度在６０～９９ｗｔ％的范围内，渗透通量Ｊｔ与温度之间符合Ａｒｒｈｅｎｉｕｓ关系，选择分离系数αＷ／Ｅ也随温度上升而增大．进料液为９５ｗｔ％的乙醇／水混合液时，７５℃下Ｊｔ高达３００～４５０ｇ／ｍ２ｈ，αＷ／Ｅ为８００～１１００．对异丙醇／水、异丁醇／水及甘油／水混合体系，复合膜显示出更为优秀的透过、分离性能．就膜的化学、物理结构与其渗透汽化性能间的关系进行了讨论．     

Pervaporation separation of water + 1,4-dioxane and water + tetrahydrofuran mixtures using sodium alginate and its blend membranes with hydroxyethylcellulose—A comparative study

Sodium alginate and hydroxyethylcellulose blend membranes were prepared by solution casting, crosslinked with glutaraldehyde and urea–formaldehyde–sulfuric acid mixture. Crosslinking was confirmed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, while the blend compatibility was studied by differential scanning calorimetry and scanning electron microscopy. Membranes were tested for pervaporation separation of feed mixtures ranging from 10 to 50 mass% water in water + 1,4-dioxane and water + tetrahydrofuran mixtures at 30 °C. For 10 mass% of the feed mixture, pervaporation experiments were also carried out at higher temperatures (40 and 50 °C). By increasing the temperature, a slight increase in flux with a considerable decrease in selectivity was observed for all the membranes and for both the mixtures. The blend membranes exhibited different pervaporation performance for both the binary mixtures investigated. For water + 1,4-dioxane mixture, the pervaporation performance did not improve much after blending, whereas for water + tetrahydrofuran mixture, the pervaporation performance has improved considerably over that of plain sodium alginate membrane.     

Pervaporation performance of PDMS-NiY zeolite hybrid membranes in the desulfurization of gasoline

PDMS-Ni²⁺Y zeolite hybrid membranes were fabricated and used for the pervaporation removal of thiophene from model gasoline system. The structural morphology, mechanical stability, crystallinity, and free volume characteristics of the hybrid membranes were systematically investigated. Molecular dynamics simulation was employed to calculate the diffusion coefficients of small penetrants in the polymer matrix and the zeolite. The effect of Ni²⁺Y zeolite content on pervaporation performance was evaluated experimentally. With the increase of Ni²⁺Y zeolite content, the permeation flux increased continuously, while the enrichment factor first increased and then decreased possibly due to the occurrence of defective voids within organic–inorganic interface region. The PDMS membrane containing 5.0 wt% Ni²⁺Y zeolite exhibited the highest enrichment factor (4.84) with a permeation flux of 3.26 kg/(m² h) for 500 ppm sulfur in feed at 30 °C. The effects of operating conditions on the pervaporation performance were investigated in detail. It has been found that the interfacial morphology strongly influenced the separation performance of the hybrid membrane, and it was of great significance to rationally modify the interfacial region in order to improve the organic–inorganic compatibility.     

Poly(vinyl alcohol)/poly(methyl methacrylate) blend membranes for pervaporation separation of water + isopropanol and water + 1,4-dioxane mixtures

Pervaporation (PV) separation of water + isopropanol and water + 1,4-dioxane mixtures has been attempted using the blend membranes of poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) with 5 wt.% of poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA). These results have been compared with the plain PVA membrane. Both plain PVA and PVA/PMMA blend membranes have been crosslinked with glutaraldehyde in an acidic medium. The membranes were characterized by differential scanning calorimetry and universal testing machine. Pervaporation separation experiments have been performed at 30 °C for 10, 15, 20, 30 and 40 wt.% of feed water mixtures containing isopropanol as well as 1,4-dioxane. PVA/PMMA blend membrane has shown a selectivity of 400 for 10 wt.% of water in water + isopropanol feed, while for water + 1,4-dioxane feed mixture, membrane selectivity to water was 104 at 30 °C. For both the feed mixtures, selectivity for the blend membrane was higher than that observed for plain PVA membrane, but flux of the blend membrane was lower than that observed for the plain PVA membrane. Membranes of this study are able to remove as much as 98 wt.% of water from the feed mixtures of water + isopropanol, while 92 wt.% of water was removed from water + 1,4-dioxane feed mixtures at 30 °C. Flux of water increased for both the feed mixtures, while the selectivity decreased at higher feed water concentrations. The same trends were observed at 40 and 50 °C for 10, 15 and 20 wt.% of water mixtures containing isopropanol as well as 1,4-dioxane feed mixtures, which also covered their azeotropic composition ranges. Membrane performance was studied by calculating flux (J_p), selectivity (), pervaporation separation index (PSI) and enrichment factor (β). Permeation flux followed the Arrhenius trend over the range of temperatures investigated. It was found that by introducing a hydrophobic PMMA polymer into a hydrophilic PVA, the selectivity increased dramatically, while flux decreased compared to plain PVA, due to a loss in PVA chain relaxation.     

Maleic Anhydride Crosslinked Alginate-Chitosan Blend Membranes for Pervaporation of Ethylene Glycol-Water Mixtures

Calcium alginate-chitosan (CA/CS) blended membranes were prepared and crosslinked with maleic anhydride (MA) for the pervaporation (PV) separation of ethylene glycol (EG)/water mixtures at 30°C. The structure and properties of blend membranes were studied with the aid of FTIR, XRD, TGA, and SEM. The effect of experimental parameters such as feed composition, membrane thickness, and permeate pressure on separation performance of the MA crosslinked membranes were determined in terms of flux, selectivity, and pervaporation separation index. Sorption studies were carried out to evaluate the extent of interaction and degree of swelling of the blend membranes in pure, as well as in binary mixtures. The experimental results suggested that the crosslinked membrane (M-CA/CS) exhibited a good selectivity of 302 at a normalized flux of 0.38 kg.m^{? 2}.h^{? 1}.10 μ m at 30°C for 96.88 wt% EG aqueous solution.     

Different viscosity grade sodium alginate and modified sodium alginate membranes in pervaporation separation of water + acetic acid and water + isopropanol mixtures

Different viscosity grade sodium alginate (NaAlg) membranes and modified sodium alginate membranes prepared by solution casting method and crosslinked with glutaraldehyde in methanol:water (75:25) mixture were used in pervaporation (PV) separation of water+acetic acid (HAc) and water+isopropanol mixtures at 30 °C for feed mixtures containing 10–50 mass% of water. Equilibrium swelling experiments were performed at 30 °C in order to study the stability of membrane in the fluid environment. Membranes prepared from low viscosity grade sodium alginate showed the highest separation selectivity of 15.7 for 10 mass% of water in the feed mixture, whereas membranes prepared with high viscosity grade sodium alginate exhibited a selectivity of 14.4 with a slightly higher flux than that observed for the low viscosity grade sodium alginate membrane. In an effort to increase the PV performance, low viscosity grade sodium alginate was modified by adding 10 mass% of polyethylene glycol (PEG) with varying amounts of poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) from 5 to 20 mass%. The modified membranes containing 10 mass% PEG and 5 mass% PVA showed an increase in selectivity up to 40.3 with almost no change in flux. By increasing the amount of PVA from 10 to 20 mass% and keeping 10 mass% of PEG, separation selectivity decreased systematically, but flux increased with increasing PVA content. The modified sodium alginate membrane with 5% PVA was further studied for the PV separation of water+isopropanol mixture for which highest selectivity of 3591 was observed. Temperature effect on pervaporation separation was studied for all the membranes; with increasing temperature, flux increased while selectivity decreased. Calculated Arrhenius parameters for permeation and diffusion processes varied depending upon the nature of the membrane.     

Pervaporation separation of alkane/thiophene mixtures with PDMS membrane

Worldwide concerns over environment have stimulated increasing interest both in academic and industry for deep desulfurization of gasoline. Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) composite membrane was used to separate the binary and multicomponent alkane/thiophene mixtures by pervaporation. Effect of carbon number and concentration of alkane, and of feed temperature, on the separation efficiency of alkane/thiophene mixtures was investigated experimentally. Experimental results of binary mixtures indicated that the total fluxes for different alkane/thiophene mixtures decrease with increase of carbon number in the alkanes. Corresponding activation energies of permeation for alkanes in PDMS membrane increase with increase of carbon number in the alkanes. Differences of molecular size and structure of the alkanes lead to various selectivities thereof within PDMS membrane. In addition, the permeability and activation energy of thiophene in various systems differ from each other due to coupling effect which should be taken into consideration when dealing with multicomponent systems. Pervaporation results of ternary systems indicated that, the increase of content of lighter alkane in feed would result in a larger total flux, but a smaller selectivity to thiophene simultaneously. A quaternary system, the mixture of n-heptane, n-octane, n-nonane and thiophene, was employed to simulate the desulfurization process of gasoline. With the membrane having a PDMS layer of 11 μm, the total flux was measured to be about 1.65 kg/m² h, with the corresponding enrichment factor of thiophene 3.9 at 30 °C.     

Dehydration of 1,4-dioxane through blend membranes of poly(vinyl alcohol) and chitosan by pervaporation

Blend membranes prepared from poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) and chitosan (CS) were crosslinked with glutaraldehyde and used in the pervaporation dehydration of 1,4-dioxane. Membranes were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and X-ray diffraction (X-RD) to assess, respectively, the intermolecular interactions, thermal stability and crystallinity. Equilibrium sorption studies were carried out in pure liquids and binary mixtures of different compositions of water + 1,4-dioxane mixtures to assess the polymer–liquid interactions. The crosslinked membrane showed a good potential in breaking the azeotrope of 82 wt.% aqueous 1,4-dioxane giving a selectivity of 117 with a reasonable water flux of 0.37 kg/m² h. The effect of operating parameters such as feed composition, membrane thickness and permeate pressure was evaluated.     

Preparation of polyelectrolyte multilayer membranes by dynamic layer-by-layer process for pervaporation separation of alcohol/water mixtures

In the past decades, the layer-by-layer (LBL) adsorption of oppositely charged polyelectrolytes has proven to be a promising method for the preparation of polyelectrolyte multilayer membranes. However, to obtain a good separation capability, LBL adsorption involved relatively long periods because 50–60 bilayers were normally required. The aim of this study was to develop such a new method that would allow simplification of the LBL procedure. LBL adsorption was proposed to proceed under a dynamic condition to prepare polyelectrolyte multilayer membranes. The polyacrylic acid (PAA) and polyethyleneimine (PEI) were alternatively deposited on polyethersulfone (PES) ultrafiltration support membrane under a pressure of 0.1 MPa. The polyelectrolyte multilayer membranes prepared by dynamic LBL process were compared with those prepared by the static LBL process for the pervaporation separation of water–ethanol mixture. The results suggested that a relatively high separation factor could be obtained with only four composite bilayers by using dynamic LBL process. The preparative conditions including bilayer number, filtration time of the first PAA layer, reaction time, ratio between polayanion and polycation concentrations, PAA molecular weight and salt addition were investigated. The pervaporation conditions such as feed temperature and water concentration in the feed were also evaluated. Under the temperature of 40 °C, the separation factor and the permeate flux of the polyelectrolyte multilayer membranes were about 1207 and 140 g/(m² h), respectively.     

Desulphurization of kerosene: Pervaporation of benzothiophene/n-dodecane mixtures

Different fluorinated copolyimides have been synthesized using 6FDA (4,4′-(hexafluoroisopropylidene)diphthalic anhydride), DABA (3,5-diaminobenzoic acid), 4MPD (2,3,5,6-tetramethyl-1,4-phenylenediamine) and 3MPD (2,4,6-trimethyl-1,3-phenylenediamine). The copolyimides with different compositions of monomers were used as membrane materials in order to remove benzothiophene from benzothiophene/n-dodecane mixtures by pervaporation. This is especially of interest in fuel cell applications where sulphur components are poisoning the catalyst and therefore reducing the life time of the system. In order to figure out which operation parameters, e.g. temperature, pressure and membrane material are necessary for the enrichment of the sulphur-aromatic component and sufficient transmembrane fluxes, different pervaporation experiments have been performed. Feed temperatures have been varied between 353 and 413 K and permeate pressures between 19 and 45 mbar, average fluxes and enrichment factors β were determined. Activation energies for permeation were calculated for benzothiophene and n-dodecane in order to understand the temperature-dependent separation characteristics. The influence of the different diamine structures on the separation characteristics was investigated. It was found out that slight differences in structure, e.g. an additional methyl group on the polymer backbone does not have a significant effect on the pervaporation properties. Total fluxes for 6FDA–4MPD/DABA 9:1 and 6FDA–3MPD/DABA 9:1 membranes were 15.2 and 10.3 kg μm/(m² h) at 393 K, with the corresponding enrichment factor of benzothiophene of 3.6 and 3.3, respectively. With increasing temperature, enhanced fluxes as well as enhanced enrichment factors were observed. Furthermore it was found that higher permeate pressures led to a decrease of the enrichment factor with no significant change in flux.     

Protein-adsorption-resistance and permeation property of polyethersulfone and soybean phosphatidylcholine blend ultrafiltration membranes

Novel ultrafiltration membranes were prepared by simple blending of polyethersulfone (PES) and soybean phosphatidylcholine (SPC). X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and water contact angle measurements indicated SPC enrichment at the membrane surfaces. The immobilization and arrangement of PC groups at surfaces rendered the membranes more hydrophilic. BSA adsorption amount decreased from 56.2 μg/cm² for SPC-free PES membrane to 2.4 μg/cm² for PES/SPC blend membrane. The fouling-resistant property of the blend membranes was improved considerably with an increase of SPC content while the pure water permeation flux decreased remarkably. Using PEG/PVP mixture instead of PEG as pore-forming agent increased pure water flux of PES/SPC blend membrane to some extent.     

Enhanced desulfurization performance and swelling resistance of asymmetric hydrophilic pervaporation membrane prepared through surface segregation technique

The severe swelling behavior of most hydrophobic membranes has always been an obstinate problem when separating organic mixtures by pervaporation. In some cases, hydrophilic membranes may be an appropriate alternative. In this study, amphiphilic copolymer Pluronic F127 was employed as a surface modifier to fabricate polyethersulfone (PES) asymmetric pervaporation membranes via surface segregation. The scanning electron microscopy (SEM) photographs showed an asymmetric structure of PES/Pluronic F127 membranes. The Fourier transform-infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and static water contact angle measurements confirmed the hydrophilic modification of the membrane surface. Based on the distinct difference of solubility in water between thiophene and n-octane, the prepared membranes were utilized to remove thiophene from n-octane by pervaporation. The effect of Pluronic F127 content on the pervaporation performance was evaluated experimentally. It has been found that both the permeation flux and enrichment factor exhibited a peak value of approximately 60 wt% of the Pluronic F127 content. The highest enrichment factor was around 3.50 with a permeation flux of 3.10 kg/(m² h) for 500 mg/L sulfur in the feed at 30 °C. The influence of various operating parameters on the pervaporation performance was extensively investigated.     

Pervaporation and properties of chitosan-poly(acrylic acid) complex membranes

Polyelectrolyte complex membranes between chitosan as a cationic polyelectrolyte and poly(acrylic acid) as an anionic species were prepared by blending two polymer solutions in different ratio. Characterization of chitosan-poly(acrylic acid) complex membrane was investigated by Fourier transform-infrared (FT-IR), wide angle X-ray diffractometer, dielectric analyzer. Their mechanical properties were studied by universal testing machine. The swelling of polyelectrolyte membranes was studied. Thermal properties of polyelectrolyte membranes from chitosan and poly(acrylic acid) by varying blend ratios showed a shift in transition temperatures of polyelectrolyte complexes. Polyelectrolyte complex membranes from chitosan and poly(acrylic acid) had pH sensitive characteristics as determined by FT-IR studies and swelling behaviors. Pervaporation performances were investigated with various organic mixtures; water-ethanol, water-isopropanol, methanol-methyl t-butyl ether mixtures. An increase of poly(acrylic acid) content in the polyelectrolyte complex membranes affected the swelling behavior and pervaporation performance of water-ethanol mixture. Permeation flux decreased and the water concentration in the permeate was close to 100% upon increasing the feed alcohol concentration.     

PERVAPORATION OF ETHANOL/WATER MIXTURES WITH HIGH FLUX BY ZEOLITE-FILLED PDMS/PVDF COMPOSITE MEMBRANES

Thin-film zeolite-filled silicone/PVDF composite membranes were fabricated by incorporating zeolite particles into PDMS(poly(dimethylsiloxane)) membranes.The morphology of zeolite particles and zeolite filled silicone composite membranes were characterized by SEM.The zeolite-filled PDMS/PVDF composite membranes were applied for the pervaporation of ethanol/water mixtures and showed higher flux compared with that reported in literatures.The effect of zeolite loading and Si/Al ratio of zeolite particles on...     

Separation of organic mixtures by pervaporation using crosslinked rubber membranes

Natural rubber (NR) and poly(styrene-co-butadiene) rubber (SBR) has been crosslinked with sulfur and accelerator with three different doses of varied accelerator to sulfur ratios to obtain three crosslinked membranes from each of these two rubbers (NR-1, NR-2 and NR-3 and SBR-1, SBR-2 and SBR-3). These six rubber membranes were used for pervaporative separation of toluene–methanol mixture up to 10 wt% of toluene in feed. It has been found that with increase in accelerator to sulfur ratio from membrane-3 to membrane-1, the vulcanization system shifts from conventional to efficient system resulting in higher degree of crosslink density and permeation selectivity. All of these membranes showed reasonably good range of flux (45.26 gm/m² h for NR-3 to 12.0 gm/m² h for SBR-1) and separation factor (162 for SBR-1 to 35.12 for NR-3) for 0.55 wt% of toluene in feed. Among these membranes NR-1 and SBR-1 with highest crosslink density showed maximum separation factor for toluene along with good flux. It has also been found that for comparable crosslink density SBR membranes showed better separation factor than NR membranes.     

Poly (caprolactone)/poly (ethylene glycol) pervaporation blend membranes: Synthesis,characterization, and performance

Poly (caprolactone) membranes with addition of different poly (ethylene glycol) concentrations were prepared for separation of water/isopropanol azeotropic mixture by pervaporation process. Different characterization tests including Fourier transform infrared, scanning electron microscopy, water contact angle, and thermogravimetric analysis were carried out on the prepared membranes. In addition, the effect of poly (ethylene glycol) PEG content on the swelling degree and the performance of the prepared membranes in pervaporation process were investigated. According to the obtained results, all the membranes were water selective and the blend membrane containing 3 wt% PEG exhibited the best pervaporation performance with a water flux of 0.517 kg/m² hour and separation factor of 1642 at the ambient temperature. Hydrophilicity improvement of the blend membranes was confirmed by constant decrease in water contact angle of the membranes as PEG content increased in the casting solution. Scanning electron microscopy cross‐sectional images indicated that the blend membranes containing PEG had a closed cellular structure. Furthermore, mechanical and thermal properties of the membranes decreased by adding PEG.     

Pervaporation dehydration of ethanol–water mixtures with chitosan/hydroxyethylcellulose (CS/HEC) composite membranes: I. Effect of operating conditions

Composite hydrophilic pervaporation membranes were prepared from chitosan blended with hydroxyethylcellulose using cellulose acetate as a porous support. The membranes were tested for dehydration performance of ethanol–water mixtures of ethanol concentrations 70–95 wt.% in the laminar flow region, at temperatures 50–70°C and at permeate pressures of 3–30 mmHg. The composite membrane showed an improved dehydration performance compared with dense CS/HEC membrane developed earlier. The effects of operating conditions also revealed that pervaporation of low water content feed carried out at high feed flow rate and at low temperature and permeate pressure was an advantage.