SYNTHESIS OF HYBRID GAS PERMEATION MEMBRANE CONDENSATION SYSTEMS FOR POLLUTION PREVENTION/

Pollution prevention is a major economic and environmental issue in th e chemical processing industries. This paper addresses the design of c ost-effective recovery systems for vaporous emissions, systems that al low environmentally sound recycling of the recovered components for re -use within the process as a means of pollution prevention. A methodol ogy is proposed to design optimal hybrid systems that involve gas perm eation membranes and vapor condensation systems. The design methodolog y is presented as a mixed-integer, nonlinear program. Based on a fixed structure of the system, a short-cut formulation is derived. Addition ally, the incorporation of the system into the emerging mass integrati on methodology is presented. It is demonstrated, through an industrial case study, that hybrid membrane/condensation systems possess advanta ges over either separation technique alone.