Preparation of Alumina-PVA pervaporation composite membrane for separation and recovery of by-product of Epoxy manufacturing process
In the epoxy resin manufacturing process, carcinogenic ECH (epichlorohydrin), IPA (isopropanol) and Biphenol-A materials has been generally used. After the reaction, byproducts containing ECH/IPA/Water is remained along with final product. But, in the recovery process, ECH and IPA forming an azeotropic mixture with water containing feed solution at any temperature condition, the recovery of high purity ECH is difficult only by distillation. Therefore, pervaporation process could be suitable countermeasure due to its mild operation condition for separation of azeotropic mixtures at the point of energy and cost saving. In this study, Alumina-PVA composite membrane was prepared for pervaporation dehydration of ECH/IPA/Water feed mixtures and pervaporation performance and stability of the prepared composite membrane was identified.