Abstract:
Membrane technology for separation has been practiced in the industry formany years due to its potential for both low capital costs and high-energy efficiency.The advances in membrane technology gradually led to the development ofmembranes suitable for the separation requirement. In recent year, there have beenmany researches that studied VOC separation from air in both laboratory and pilotscales. The permeability coefficient through a membrane is an indicator forevaluating the membrane separation ability. It is investigated by permeationexperimental set up via a permeability cell. In this research, the permeability cell andthe permeability measurement system were designed and constructed. The obtainedpermeability measurement apparatus was used to determine the permeability ofvolatile organic compounds (VOCs) which are toluene, hexane, and acetone vaporsthrough a composite polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) membrane. It was also used todetermine the permeability of acetone vapor through a chitosan membrane. Highvacuumpressure change method was selected to determine the permeability of thesevapors. In the experiment, the obtained apparatus was tested for all possible leaksand the performance was evaluated by measuring the permeability coefficient of aknown gaslmembrane system using the permeation of nitrogen gas through PDMSmembrane. The results indicated that the apparatus leakage could be neglected. Thepermeability of nitrogen gas through PDMS membrane result was 2.865~10-~ cm3-cm/cm2-cmHg-sec. It agreed well with the known permeability from themanufacturer (of 2.907x10กำลัง-8) cm3-cm/cm2-cmHg-sec). Then the permeabilities of theselected VOC vapors through the membrane were determined. The obtainedpermeability of toluene vapor at 1.7 inHg was 7.269x10กำลัง-8)cm3-cm/cm2-cmHg-sec.The permeabilities of hexane and acetone vapors at operating feed pressure of 1.7,4.7, 6.7, and 7.7 inHg were in the range of 7.651x10'7-1.577x10~6 and 9.091~10-~-1.729x10กำลัง-6)cm3-cm/cm2-cmHg-sec, respectively. Moreover, it was found that thevapor permeability increased when the feed pressure of these vapors increased. Forthe chitosan membrane experiment, a dense chitosan membrane was prepared usingevaporation method and the permeability of acetone vapor through the membranewas studied. Its thickness was in the range of 30-60 pm. From the results, thechitosan membrane cannot be used since there was the leakage problems thatoccurred and the obtained membrane was torn under vacuum conditions.Improvements for this section needs to be studied further.