SOLVOSEP

Solvo-Sep pervaporation or vapour permeation consists of Hollow fiber, tubular or spiral-wound, flat sheet membranes of Zeolite, and Polymers that separate in two modes. Liquid flow or Vapour flow.

A typical application is the dehydration of solvents, specifically ethanol and other solvents. The energy-saving and ease of operation, with no downtimes, promises it to be a chosen technology for the future.

There is a limitation of conventional distillation and breaking of difficult azeotropes. Solvo-Sep is an excellent add-on system to increase the profitability of distillation. Distillation is a traditional mixture of fluid separation technology that can separate components with different volatilities and markedly different boiling points (e.g. Benzene/toluene mixture). However, distillation is extremely complicated when the concentration of the separating components is similar in the liquid and vapour phases, called the azeotropic point (e.g. THF/water, Acetonitrile/Water, Ethanol/water or IPA/water mixtures). Distillation alone cannot perform any further separation beyond the azeotropic point, which calls for the introduction of additional columns or entrainers.

Usually, the Solvo-Sep is a complementary technology to distillation. As a hybrid unit, it can dramatically improve the operation of a distillation column. Solvo-Sep breaks the azeotropes on a molecular level based on the selectivity of the membranes.