Chemical Engineering and Processing, Vol.118, 47-53, 2017
Pervaporation dehydration of binary and ternary mixtures of acetone, isopropanol and water using polyvinyl alcohol/zeolite membranes
Mixed matrix membranes were prepared by uniformly dispersing of zeolite particles in a polyvinyl alcohol matrix. After membrane characterization, the ability of the prepared membranes was examined toward pervaporation dehydration of binary and ternary mixtures of acetone, isopropanol and water because of their industrial importance. The effect of different parameters on the membrane performance was investigated and the best conditions were obtained. The results showed that, NaA zeolite particles significantly improved the separation performance of the membranes. The selectivity was increased with an increase of zeolite loading up to 5% wt. The best results were obtained for dehydration of isopropyl alcohol where the separation factor was calculated as 1881. Based on the findings of the research, the incorporation of NaA zeolites into the polymer matrix can be very effective for dehydration of acetone and isopropanol. The results show that the prepared membrane can be a good candidate for removal of water in acetone production from isopropyl alcohol.