Microporous Membrane Solvent Extraction

Abstract

The versatility of the phenomenon of dispersion-free solvent extraction through immobilized aqueous-organic interface in a microporous hydrophobic membrane is demonstrated here. This technique has been used here for an organic-organic interface to extract aromatics from a hydrocarbon feedstock by a polar organic solvent. The phenomenon has been studied further with microporous hydrophilic and composite hydrophobic-hydrophilic membranes. Operational modes and the influence of the membrane and boundary layer resistances for various solvent-solute-membrane systems have been studied for a CELGARD (hydrophobic) and a CUPROPHAN (hydrophilic) membrane. Limited performance data for microporous hydrophobic CELGARD hollow fibers (X-20) are also presented. © 1987, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. All rights reserved.