(27e) Pervaporative Separation of Water-Alcohol Mixtures Using Ghanaian Zeolite-Clay Filled PVA Composite Membranes

A pervaporative separation of ethanol-water mixtures was successfully performed using a Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) based composite membrane filled with zeolites made from local clays  from Ghana. The substrate for the ultra-thin PVA composite membrane was made of polysulphone. The pervaporation cell was fabricated locally from scrap aluminium and feed concentrations of ethanol-water mixtures ranging from 60 to 90 v% were separated.

The clay samples used in the development of the membranes were obtained from three different locations of Abonku, Anfoega and Teleku-Bukoazu. The effective surface area of the membranes for separation was 0.007854 m². All separations were performed at room temperature and the feed was at atmospheric pressure.

For all the feed concentrations, the composite membrane with Teleku-Bukoazu zeolite-clay filler produced the best performance after ten hours. For a feed concentration of 87.5 wt %, the mixture was enriched to concentrations more than 95 wt% and a separation factor of 85.1 g/m²-h was obtained.