Transport Process of Isopropanol Aqueous Solution by Pervaporation

To study the transport process of isopropanol aqueous solution by pervaporation, the transport model of isopropanol and that of water at 323 K in polyvinyl alcohol(PVA) membrane were obtained in this paper. Theoretical predictions agreed well with the experimental results. The interactional parameter between water and PVA membrane is less than that between isopropanol and PVA membrane, which shows that water is preferentially dissolved in PVA membrane. The plasticizing coefficient and diffusion coefficient at infinite dilution of water are larger than those of isopropanol,which shows that the dissolution and permeation in PVA membrane of water are greater than those of isopropanol. Both the interactional parameter between water and isopropanol in the membrane and that in feed rise with the increase of isopropanol content in feed, which shows that the larger isopropanol content is, the higher selectivity of the membrane is and the more remarkable separation effect of pervaporation is.