Pervaporation separation of methanol methyl t-butyl ether mixtures by acrylic acid-acrylonitrile copolymer porous alumina composite membranes

Composite membranes composed of an acrylic acid-acrylonitrile copolymer lay er crosslinked by ethylene glycol diglycidyl ether and a porous alumina sup port were prepared and evaluated for the pervaporation separation of methan ol (MeOH) from MeOH/methyl t-butyl ether (MTBE) mixtures. The permeation fl uxes of both components decreases and separation factor increases with incr easing crosslinking agent content. Moreover, the permeation rate is express ed by the solution-diffusion model, considering the swelling effect of meth anol component, and the effect of temperature on the permeation fluxes and the separation factor is estimated by using the apparent activation energy values.