Pervaporation separation of ethylacetate-ethanol mixtures using zeolite 13X-filled poly(dimethylsiloxane) membrane

Abstract

Sorption and pervaporation experiments were carried out for pure ethanol, pure ethyl acetate and their binary mixtures using zeolite 13X-filled poly(dimethylsiloxane) membranes prepared by the solution-casting method. The sorption values increased in proportion with the amount of ethyl acetate in the mixtures. The excess Gibbs free energies and values of the activity coefficients calculated with the UNIFAC method were used simultaneously to determine the binary interaction parameters for the ethyl acetate-ethanol mixture. The effects of temperature and feed concentration on the flux and selectivity values were investigated. The total fluxes increased in proportion to the amount of ethyl acetate in the feed. However, the selectivity decreased due to the coupling effect. The prepared membranes were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM).