Design of a vapor permeation membrane for VOC removal by the filling membrane concept

The concept of a filling-type membrane is used to design a membrane for removing volatile organic compounds from emissions. Solvent solubility is predicted by the GCLF-EOS model, and compared with the previously used UNIFAC-FV model. For the various polymer systems studied, the GCLF-EOS model provides better accuracy, and this is attributed to the correct prediction of the effect of excess volume on solubility. The flux of benzene, toluene and ethylbenzene is measured by vapor permeation experiments through filling-type acrylate membranes, and the prediction from this approach agrees well with the VOC vapor permeation experiments. The influence of such operating conditions as solvent activity in feed and permeate is also discussed.