Progress in pervaporation membranes for dehydration of acetic acid

Acetic acid is an essential intermediate chemical and belongs to the top 50 commodities of the chemical industry. Dehydration of acetic acid/water mixture is an indispensable process for the final acetic acid product. As an effective alternative technique for energy-intensive distillation, pervaporation is getting significant attention for this target separation due to its high efficiency, low energy requirements, and eco-friendly nature. In the present review, the advances in pervaporation membranes, especially polymeric membranes, composite membranes, zeolite membranes, and sol–gel derived ceramic membranes are covered for dehydration of acetic acid/water mixture. The developed strategies to overcome the tradeoff between membrane hydrophilicity and acid resistance are discussed for each kind of membrane with a particular focus on tuning framework Si/Al ratio and Al atom spatial distribution of zeolite membranes, and development of hybrid silica membranes. Thus, pervaporation membranes performance is described along with future prospects and challenges for their commercialization as acid-resistant membranes. In addition to this, we have critically discussed the use of hollow fiber technology for the dehydration of acetic acid and stressed the need of acid-resistant membranes for esterification reactions to improve the yield of the final product.