Petro Sep - Pervaporation (PV) System

Petro Sep has developed VOC-SEP™ and AZEO-SEP™ that primarily utilize PV or possibly VP for separation.

In the PV process, the feed solution is kept at a specific temperature and pressure that ensure a liquid phase during the operation (i.e., temperature lower than the boiling point and pressure higher than the bubble point of the feed). A dense non-porous membrane is required to perform the selective separation process of a specific compound from the mixture and thus control the efficiency of PV process. The components that permeate through a non-porous perm-selective membrane vaporize somewhere inside the membrane until reaching the other side, that is, the permeate side. The permeate side is kept normally under vacuum so that a large driving force is ensured. The components that have permeated (the “permeate”) are condensed and collected again in a liquid phase. The liquid stream that did not permeate through the membrane is called “the retentate” and is concentrated in the less permeant species.

For the selection of a suitable membrane some parameters should be considered. Such as degree of hydrophilicity, chemical and thermal stability and the selectivity and permeability of the target component. Depending upon the feed composition, the desired permeate purity, the PV application can be classified into: