Separation of Liquid Mixtures by Pervaporation

Separation of various mixtures, especially liquid mixtures, is a very necessary unit operation in industry. A large number of such techniques are available, such as distillation, adsorption, liquid-liquid extraction, and fractional crystalization [l]. The development of this type of technology became necessary to effect separation of azeotropic liquid mixtures. For liquid mixtures having components with similar boiling ranges, however, such conventional separation techniques are energy intensive and add considerably to the cost of the final product. With the advent of the necessity of reducing the energy requirements of Unit options, membrane separation has been recognized as an alternative to the conventional methods.