PVA-based Pervaporation Membranes for Separation of Water-Alcohol Solutions: A Review

Dehydration of alcohols has attracted a great deal of attention owing to its wide application in ‎several medical, pharmaceutical and chemical industries. High separation efficiency, low energy ‎consumption, simplicity and minimum contamination are the main characteristics which make ‎pervaporation (PV) a promising method in the area of alcohol dehydration to provide extremely ‎pure alcohols. Due to their permselectivity and high processability, polymers are the main ‎materials for PV membranes. For this purpose, poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) is the most commonly ‎used polymer because of its desired hydrophilicity, flexibility, good film-forming ability and low ‎cost. However, excessive swelling is the main challenge in fabrication of PVA membranes for ‎dehydration application; to overcome this disadvantage, various attempts have been made to ‎modify PVA membranes for separation of water and alcohols. In this paper, various ‎modifications and developments that have been made to improve the PV performance of PVA-‎based membranes for separation of water and alcohols have been reviewed.‎