A non-equilibrium thermodynamics model of multicomponent mass and heat transport in pervaporation processes

The framework of non-equilibrium thermodynamics (NET) is used to derive heat and mass transport equations for pervaporation of a binary mixture in a membrane. In this study, the assumption of equilibrium of the sorbed phase in the membrane and the adjacent phases at the feed and permeate sides of the membrane is abandoned, defining the interface properties using local equilibrium. The transport equations have been used to model the pervaporation of a water–ethanol mixture, which is typically encountered in the dehydration of organics. The water and ethanol activities and temperature profiles are calculated taking mass and heat coupling effects and surfaces into account. The NET approach is deemed good because the temperature results provided by the model are comparable to experimental results available for water–alcohol systems.