Pervaporative recovery of perchloroethylene from spent solvent of electroplating industry: Experiment and modelling studies

Abstract

Pervaporation (PV), a membrane separation process, has been used to recover from spent solvent of perchloroethylene (PERC), one of the solvents used for surface treatment in electroplating industries. Commercial polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) flat type membrane (thickness, 200 μm) was employed to remove PERC from spent solvent. A model, based on solutiondiffusion mechanism, was proposed to predict mass transfer during PV. The effects of permeate pressure and feed flow rate on PV were investigated to validate the model. A Pervaporation Separation Index (PSI) of 4198.61 was achieved finally. The moisture content in the final permeate was 1%.