Effect of swelling on mass transfer performance in membrane extraction

The membrane extraction experiments were performed with tributyl phosphate/acetic acid (HAc)/water, n-butanol/HAc/water and 20% Alamine (in kerosene); HAc; and water as working systems. HAc was transferred from the aqueous phase to the organic phase. The effect of flat membranes swelling on mass transfer was studied. The membranes were microporous polysulfone and microporous polytetrafluoroethylene. The overall mass transfer coefficients based on the water phase were calculated and compared between nonswollen and swollen membranes. The experimental results show that the physical structure of the flat membranes used in our experiments was changed if soaked by organic solvents; however, change in thickness was not found. The overall mass transfer coefficients clearly were decreased after the flat membranes were swollen. The most likely reason is that the mass transfer resistance was increased because of the change of the membrane structure. The results also show that it is better to choose a hydrophilic membrane to reach high mass transfer performance when the equilibrium constant is very low.