Assessment of pervaporative separation of methyl acetate and methanol using organophilic membranes

- Organophilic pervaporation of methyl acetate and methanol was investigated.
- Four commercially available membranes were tested.
- The active membrane material was polydimethylsiloxane and polyoctylmethylsiloxane.
- The POMS-based membrane could be used to separate the binary mixture.
- The separation capability of PDMS membranes lay below that of flash distillation.

The separation performance efficiencies of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)-based (PERVAP™ 4060, PDMS 04-075, and PDMS 04-123) and polyoctylmethylsiloxane (POMS)-based (POMS 05-119) organophilic composite membranes were investigated, examining the amount of methyl acetate recovered from binary methyl acetate-methanol mixtures. The effects of feed composition (at 50 °C) and feed temperature (40 °C, 50 °C, and 60 °C) were investigated. Based on temperature variation tests, the enthalpies of evaporation for methyl acetate and methanol were estimated. Additionally, an empirical model was built on the basis of the solution-diffusion transport equation and extended to account for swelling characteristics of the membrane.Whereas the membrane POMS 05-119 can be applied under the conditions described, particularly when the goal is to overcome the azeotropic barrier, separation performance of the PDMS-based membranes was inferior to the performance of a conventional flash distillation method.