Pervaporation, Vapour Permeation and Membrane Distillation

Book excerpt: Vapour permeation and membrane distillation are two emerging membrane technologies for the production of vapour as permeate, which, in addition to well-established pervaporation technology, are of increasing interest to academia and industry. As efficient separation and concentration processes, they have high potential for use in the energy, water, chemical, food and pharmaceutical sectors. Part One begins by covering the fundamentals, preparation and characterization of pervaporation, before going on to outline the associated systems and applications. State of the art uses, future trends and next generation pervaporation are then discussed. Part Two then explores the preparation, characterization, systems and applications of membranes for vapour permeation, followed by modelling and the new generation of vapour permeation membranes. Finally, Part Three outlines the fundamentals of membrane distillation and its applications in integrated systems, before the book concludes with a view of the next generation. - Explores three emerging membrane technologies that produce vapour as a permeate. - Looks at the fundamentals, applications, state of the art uses and next generation of each technology. - Provides an authoritative guide for chemical engineers and academic researchers interested in membrane technologies for desalination, process water/steam treatment, water purification, VOCs removal and other aspects of pollution control, industrial process chemistry, renewable energy production or separation and concentration in the food/pharmaceutical industries.