Study on the progress of chitosan composite pervaporation membrane for the separation of organic solvents

The efficient separation and purification of organic solvents is an important and indispensable link in the fields of chemical synthesis, biotechnology, and drug discovery, etc. Direct discharge of wastewater containing organic solvents can cause great harm to the environment and human health, and result in resource waste. Pervaporation (PV) is a novel membrane separation technology that utilizes membrane selectivity for different components and permeation rate differences to achieve separation of organic solvents. This paper introduces the principles of pervaporation for organic solvent separation and details commonly used pervaporation membrane materials. It reviews the research progress on chitosan pervaporation membranes for organic solvent separation, focusing on separating solvents like ethanol, isopropanol, and acetone from water, as well as the separation of organic solvents mixtures. Furthermore, summarized the methods and separation mechanisms of chitosan composite pervaporation membranes for improving the efficiency of organic solvent separation and purification. Finally, the development direction of using natural biomass chitosan-based composite pervaporation membranes for the separation of organic solvents is discussed.