Fractionation of dilute methanol in pentane solution by reverse osmosis

Abstract

Studies have been made on the use of membranes in order to lower the concentration of methanol in a 1% methanol in pentane solution. Two membranes were studied. One was fabricated from polyvinyl chloride and the other from cellulose acetate-butyrate. Results show that each membrane behaves differently. The cellulose acetate-butyrate membrane enriched the permeate in methanol content and the polyvinylchloride membrane depleted it. Calculations were made for a multistage process using these two membranes: it appears that the separations obtained in this preliminary work need to be improved for economic viability. A brief study on cellulose acetate and cellulose triacetate membranes was also conducted.