Pervaporation and Membrane Contactors

Among the large variety of membrane processes, pervaporation (PV) and membrane contactors (MCs) play an influent and important role in the scenario of a sustainable growth for the modern society. In these processes, the species to be removed are in the liquid phase and change to vapour phase occurs once they permeates the membrane. In both applications the role of the membrane is pivotal: it allows to discern the permeation of target molecules on the basis of their solubility and diffusivity in response to a concentration gradient (in case of PV); or it acts as a contactor between two phases avoiding the mixing between them (in case of MC). The main similarities and differences of the two processes are highlighted and discussed through out the chapter. The first part focuses on the fundamentals of PV, the applications, the types of membranes generally applied and the model approach used. The second part gives an overview on MCs with a particular emphasis on the different processes of membrane distillation (MD), including the modeling, and their main applications.