Organic‐Organic Separation by Pervaporation. II. Separation of Methanol from Tame by an α‐Alumina Supported Nay‐Zeolite Membrane

Abstract

Government legislation and an increased awareness of environmental issues with the general public have motivated chemical industries to look to more environmentally friendly production methods. The separation of organic‐organic components to produce chemicals of a higher purity remains a problem in industry, because these type of chemicals usually form azeotropes in mixtures which are expensive to separate by traditional methods such as distillation. Most often the component to be separated is present in small amount, making the separation by distillation either impossible or very expensive. Membrane processes have proven to be very effective for the removal of low‐concentration chemicals from mixtures, but application is always limited by the availability of a membrane that can both accomplish the separation and is stable under adverse conditions of high concentrations and varying flow rates. In this study, the application of a supported NaY‐zeolite membrane for the separation of methanol from tert‐amyl methyl ether is investigated with regard to varying feed concentration, feed temperature, and a change in membrane orientation. It is shown that this membrane can be successfully applied to the separation of an organic‐organic mixture with a relative high flux and excellent selectivity toward methanol.

Keywords:

• Organic
• Pervaporation
• NaY membrane
• TAME