Enantioenrichment by pervaporation

The present paper describes an original concept of membrane-assisted enantiomer enrichment exploiting a combination of complexation to β-cyclodextrin and selective transport through a PDMS pervaporation membrane. Linalool has been used as a model racemic mixture, due to its large use in perfumes, soaps and detergents. Results, under different operating conditions such as the feed composition and the feed temperature were presented. According to these experiments, under optimal operating conditions in the range we considered, the best enantiomeric enrichment achieved was 14% for linalool in a single pass and the permeate flux value obtained was equal to 250 g h−1 m−2. This result demonstrated that our original approach offered opportunities for enantiomers separation; the performances may obviously be improved and the process may be extended to two or even more stages.