Field application, concentrating organic chemicals from water

Pervaporation now has two commercial applications. The first and most developed is the separation of water from concentrated alcohol solutions. The leader in this field, GFT of Neunkirchen, Germany, installed their first major plant in 1982. Currently, more than 100 plants have been installed by GFT for this application (92). The second application is the separation of small amounts of organic solvents from contaminated water (93). In both applications, organics are separated from water. This separation is relatively easy because organic compoimds and water exhibit distinct membrane permeation properties as a result of their difference in polarity. The separation is also amenable to membrane pervaporation, because the feed solutions are relatively nonaggressive and do not chemically degrade the membrane. 

---