pervaporation

Pervaporation is a membrane process which enables solvent dehydration without dependency on vapor/liquid equilibria. The separation mechanism is based on high water affinity of the membrane material; water is preferentially adsorbed and transported through the membrane. The process can be operated with liquid feed (pervaporation) or with vapor feed (vapor permeation) and in batch or in continuous mode. 

Commercially proven applications of pervaporation are:

• dehydration of solvents

• removal of water during condensation reactions

• methanol separation from organic mixtures