The application of pervaporation for the separation of multicomponent mixtures may involve coupling effects among components and the membrane, which could increase or decrease the permeance of the target compound. In order to study and describe this phenomenon, mixtures of components present in two model reactions have been considered: the transesterification reaction between methyl acetate and butanol to produce methanol and butyl acetate, and the transesterification reaction between methanol and ethyl acetate to produce ethanol and methyl acetate. Both reactions are of utmost interest in the chemical industry and present high cost of separation due to the presence of azeotropic mixtures (i.e., methanol/methyl acetate; butanol/butyl acetate; ethanol/ethyl acetate).

The separation performance of four commercial membranes (i.e., PERVAP 1255-30, PERVAP 4155-40, PERVAP 1255-50, PERVAP 4155-80) from Sulzer Chemtech, Switzerland, is evaluated. The effect of the feed concentration and the temperature on the separation performance was studied in terms of permeance and selectivity. Coupling effects were observed when the permeance of pure solvents was compared with that of the components in the mixture. The coupling effects were analyzed by the Hansen solubility approach and by the variation of activities within the membrane.

全蒸发用于分离多组分混合物的过程可能涉及组分与膜之间的偶联效应，这可能会增加或降低目标化合物的渗透率。为了研究和描述这种现象，已经考虑了两个模型反应中存在的组分的混合物：乙酸甲酯和丁醇之间的酯交换反应以生产甲醇和乙酸丁酯，甲醇和乙酸乙酯之间的酯交换反应以生产乙醇和甲基甲烷。醋酸盐。两种反应在化学工业中都是最重要的，并且由于存在共沸混合物（即，甲醇/乙酸甲酯；丁醇/乙酸丁酯；乙醇/乙酸乙酯）而导致分离成本高昂。

评价了来自瑞士苏尔寿化学技术公司的四种市售膜（即PERVAP 1255-30，PERVAP 4155-40，PERVAP 1255-50，PERVAP 4155-80）的分离性能。根据渗透率和选择性研究了进料浓度和温度对分离性能的影响。当将纯溶剂的渗透率与混合物中各组分的渗透率进行比较时，观察到了偶联作用。通过Hansen溶解度方法和通过膜内活性的变化来分析偶联作用。