Recovery of organic vapours

The emission of organic vapours into air is a serious environmental problem. Because of the large difference between the permeability of nitrogen (air) and those of all kinds of organic vapours (see chapter V and VT), membrane processes can be applied to recover and effect the re-use of organic vapours especially at high vapour concentrations. 

Desalination of seawater is one of the most important applications of membrane processes. A number of techniques are available to produce fresh water such as distillation (multi-stage flash evaporation, MSF), electrodialysis, membrane distiUation, freezing, and reverse osmosis. 

Fignre VTU - 27. Flow diagram ofa reverse osmosis system for seawater desalination [13]. 

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