Abstract
Pervaporation separation of methanol (MeOH) from methanol-t-amyl methyl ether (TAME) mixtures is carried out using polyion complex (PIC) hollow fiber membrane. The sorption experiment is performed to observe the equilibrium relations between solute concentrations in the solution and in the membrane phase. With increasing MeOH weight fraction in the feed solution, the permeation flux of MeOH increases, but that of TAME remains almost constant. Considering the swelling effect by MeOH component, the flux model is described using diffusion coefficients dependent on MeOH concentration in the membrane and it can be successfully fitted to experimental data. The separation factor of MeOH ranges from 12 to 73, and decreases with increasing MeOH weight fraction in the feed solution.
