Pervaporative desulfurization of gasoline—separation of hydrocarbon/thiophene mixtures using polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)-based membranes

Pervaporative desulfurization of gasoline—separation of hydrocarbon/thiophene mixtures using polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)-based membranes

Type	Journal Article
Author	Katarzyna Rychlewska
Author	Krystyna Konieczny
URL	http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/19443994.2014.988412
Volume	57
Issue	3
Pages	1247-1254
Publication	Desalination and Water Treatment
Date	January 14, 2016
Abstract	Researchers conducted a set of vacuum pervaporation tests to study the performance of the commercial composite membrane with an active layer made of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). They examined the effects of feed temperature, the sulfur content in the mixture, and feed composition on membrane performance. Toluene/thiophene and n-heptane/thiophene binary organic mixtures simulating gasoline were separated at 30–50°C, at laboratory scale. Studies have shown that the concentration of thiophene in the mixture and the temperature of the feed have a significant impact on the yield and selectivity of the desulfurization process. Experimental results revealed that higher feed temperature yielded higher total and partial fluxes and a lower sulfur enrichment factor. The total and partial fluxes increased as the sulfur content in the feed increased. The sulfur enrichment factor decreased with the amount of thiophene added in the gasoline. The experiments also demonstrated that commercial PDMS membrane was more selective to thiophene in the case of n-haptane/thiophene mixture, mainly due to higher affinity of toluene toward PDMS.