Abstract
Four kind of triethylene glycol(TEG) liquids which have different hydrophilicity were applied to VOC vapor removal from air as supported liquid membrane. The liquid membrane was a double-layer type, in which a supported liquid membrane of 12-85 µm thickness was placed on a hydrophobic microporous membrane. This construction enables a vacuum mode permeation of VOC vapor, while air permeation was kept low rate. The TEG liquid membranes showed comparable removing performance with a silicone rubber membrane for VOC vapors, benzene, acetone, methanol etc. as a whole, but the VOC permeability and selectivity over air depended on the hydrophobic or hydrophilic property of the liquid membrane material. The TEG-dibuthylether liquid membrane of hydrophobic was effective for removing hydrocarbon vapors, benzene and toluene. On the other hand the hydrophilic TEG liquid membrane had selectivity for water-soluble vapors, methanol, acetone and ammonia. The selectivity for a VOC vapor of a TEG liquid membrane could be explained by solubility between permeate and membrane material. This was explained and illustrated by the 3-dimension Hansen solubility parameters.
