Chlorinated organics removal from water by plasma-graft filling polymerized membranes

In pervaporation, a membrane is placed between the liquid and the vapor, and the difference in the chemical potential between the two phases drives permeation. This process can separate azeotropic mixtures and mixtures close to boiling point. Recently, some pervaporation systems were applied for separation of small amounts of organic solvents from contaminated water (Brun et al., 1985; Lee et al., 1989a,b; Blume et al., 1990; Boddekker et al., 1990; Hoshi et al., 1991). The main purpose of this system is to solve an environmental pollution problem and to recover a valuable product. Although pervaporation systems are competitive with other conventional methods (Blume et al., 1990), the treatment cost by pervaporation depends seriously on the membrane separation properties.