SOLVENT FLUXES MEASURED ON A MEMBRANE MODULE

The separation of solvents from air by gas permeation can be a way of solving air pollution problems in the future. To determine the potential of such a process the solvent permeability must be known. The purpose of this work has been to study the effect of parameters such as permeate pressure, feed concentration and permeating water vapour on the solvent permeability in a spiral wound module. It was shown that the permeate pressure strongly influences the solvent permeability, while it is much less influenced by the feed concentration. The permeating water vapour tends to slightly increase the solvent permeabilities. A difference with respect to previously published results has been found, which shows the need to measure the permeabilities at the actual operating conditions, with respect to gas composition and membrane pressure difference, in the actual module and not to base further calculations on single component measurements.