Separation of ethanol/ethyl acetate mixture by pervaporation at 100–130 °C through NaY zeolite membrane for industrial purpose

Ethanol separation from mixtures of ethanol (EtOH) and ethyl acetate (EtAc) was performed by pervaporation (PV) at feed conditions of 100–130 °C and 1, 5, 10 and 30 wt.% ethanol content through the NaY zeolite membranes synthesized for industrial purpose. Experimental results showed that higher permeation fluxes up to 2.9 kg m−2 h−1 at 130 °C in a feed mixture of EtOH (30 wt.%)/EtAc (70 wt.%) was observed. The ethanol permeance (mol m−2 s−1 Pa−1) ranged from 1.6 × 10−8 to 5.4 × 10−8 in all feed conditions. Higher temperatures and higher ethanol contents in feed enhanced permeation ethanol flux or ethanol permeance. Higher and moderate separation factors (α) of 27–82 were observed through the results, indicating this membrane performance could be utilized in practical separating process to break up the azeotrope in the ethanol–ethyl acetate mixture. The separating mechanism could be attributed to the affinity difference in two molecules of ethanol and ethyl acetate. This separation could be a typical case for preferential adsorption mechanism that could separate components with smaller molecular sizes than zeolitic pore size.