EMERGING TECHNOLOGY REPORT CROSS-FLOW PERVAPORATION SYSTEM FOR REMOVAL OF VOCs FROM CONTAMINATED WASTEWATER

The U.S. Federal Register of April 17, 1987, contains a list of priority pollutants found at Superfund Sites. About half of these are volatile organic compounds (VOC’s), which are known to be toxic and/or carcinogenic in nature. Pervaporation is a membrane technology utilizing a dense non-porous polymeric film to separate the contaminated water from a vacuum source. A membrane is used that preferentially partitions the VOC organic phase used in this test. This process has proven to be an alternative to conventional technology because it removes the amount of VOC's without requiring any pre/post treatments. Pervaporation is a cost-effective method of removing VOC’s.