Organic solvents are widely used in the pharmaceutical and fine chemical industry, e.g. for the synthesis of pharmaceuticals, to isolate and purify APIs from aqueous solutions, for cleaning purposes or for drying final products.
In order to recycle the solvent to the process, the water must be removed, which is particularly challenging as many solvents form azeotropes with water.
Dehydration is conventionally carried out by energy intensive processes, like entrainer or pressure swing distillation, to make solvent/water separation possible. Caustic soda is also used in the dehydration step, which generates a waste stream.
Pervaporation enables the removal of water from solvent mixtures, through a hydrophilic membrane, independent of vapor/liquid equilibria.
The process can be operated with liquid feed (pervaporation) or with vapor feed (vapor permeation) and in batch or in continuous operating mode, depending on the feed flow as well as on production needs.
These process steps can be integrated and/or coupled with existing distillation units resulting in large energy savings or increased production capacity.
