Vapour permeation of VOC emitted from petroleum activities: Application for low concentrations

This study deals with the application of vapour permeation on the abatement of air polluted with VOC, from low to medium concentrations. Toluene, butadiene and propylene were chosen as model compounds. On a first part of the study, the permeation of single VOC, binary and ternary VOC/air mixtures was performed at different flow rates and VOC concentrations. The permeate flux, permeance, enrichment factor, separation efficiency and the recovery were determined. The experimental results were compared to those obtained with a mathematical model, allowing the calculation of the membrane area required to eliminate 95% of the feed VOC content.