Dehydration of ethylene glycol by pervaporation using hydrophilic IPNs of PVA, PAA and PAAM membranes

Pervaporative dehydration of ethylene glycol-water mixture was carried using PAA-PVA and PAAM-PVA interpenetrating polymer network (IPN) membranes. PAA-PVA IPN and PAAM-PVA IPN membranes were prepared by sequential IPN technique. The effects of concentration of water in the feed, and feed temperature on the sorption and permeation of water were studied. The effects of content of PAA in PAA-PVA IPN membrane on the permeation of water and mechanical strength of the membrane were also studied. The data obtained from sorption and permeation experiments were used to estimate the energy of activation for permeation (Delta E-p), energy of activation for diffusion (Delta E-d) and heat of sorption (Delta H-s) of water in the membrane. A model has been proposed to estimate the diffusion coefficient of water and ethylene glycol. It was found that PAA-PVA IPN membrane shows selective water transport compared to that of a PAAM-PVA IPN membrane. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V.