Comparison of Single and Double-Network PVA Pervaporation Performance: Effect of Operating Temperature

Thermal crosslinking sequential method applied for DN-PVAs generation efficiently. The swelling measurements investigated that the hydrophilicity of the membrane decreases because of the collaboration of the second thermal crosslinked PVA matrix. The dehydration performance of ethanol solution showed improved using the thermal crosslinked double network PVA membrane. The pervaporation dehydration of the water-ethanol mixture was investigated at different conditions. The separation selectivity showed a significant improvement, while the permeation flux declines due to the incorporation of the second PVA network under 95 % ethanol and at 40 °C. Increasing the feed temperature enhanced the permeability of the membrane, while decreasing the water content in the feed resulted in an increase in the selectivity. The overall results showed that, at high operating temperature and high ethanol concentration in the feed, the prepared membranes are highly selective towards the water with reasonable fluxes values. The influence of temperature permeation parameter and diffusion coefficient of the feed component is also discussed. The negative heat of sorption ( ∆Hs ) values calculated on the basis of the estimated Arrhenius activation energy values indicates that the sorption process is controlled by Langmuir's mode.