The computer simulation of the continuous pervaporation process of ethanol-water mixture was conducted and the membrane characteristics for the optimum performance was analysed.
Balance equations for the continuous channel flow(CCF) type module of rectiangular cross section and continuous stirred tank(CST) type module were established and solved by finite difference nethod.
This simulation showed that the concentration polarization across the height of the channel was not significantly affected by varying the separation factor of the membrane, but significant effects were observed by varying the permeablility.
It was observed that the performance of the continuous pervaporation process which was quantified by the objective function, defined by the product of the retentate flow rate times the concentration of ethanol, was high when membrane had higher permeability when the feed ethanol concentration was low, but when the feed ethanol concentration was high, membranes with low permeability and high separation factor gave better performance.
The use of IPN membranes of PSAN/PAA with different PAA content gave optimum performance. The three stage pervaporator with PSAN/PAA 40/60 IPN membrane(high permeability and low separation factor) in the first stage and with PSAN/PAA 60/40 IPN membrane(high separation factor and low permeability) in the second and third stage gave production of ethanol of 85% in the retentate for the 3cm W*. 3cmH * 100cm L channel pervaporator with feed concentration of 10% ethanol and flow rate of 100g/hr.