Pervaporation of pharmaceutical waste streams and synthetic mixtures using water selective membranes

The separation characteristics of binary mixtures and complex pharmaceutical wastes were investigated using commercial water pervaporation membranes. Various synthetic alcohol-water systems and actual wastes were used in the study. The effect of the presence of salt in the feed on the pervaporation separation was studied. There was a noticeable effect only at high concentrations of alcohol-water feed. Both the total flux and the membrane selectivity decreased at high salt concentrations. The experimental results and operating cost calculations showed that pervaporation is an attractive strategy for volume reduction and the simultaneous reduction of organic concentration in the permeate system.