Membrane-assisted VOC removal from aqueous acrylic latex

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in model aqueous solutions and in acrylic latex binder used for formulating latex paint can be stripped without foaming by using a nanoporous hydrophobic polypropylene membrane. The stripping gas employed was dry, room temperature nitrogen or 50 °C water-saturated air. For the dry nitrogen stripping gas, fouling was minimal for the hydrophobic polypropylene over several days, in sharp contrast to experiments with hydrophilic membranes. No fouling of the polypropylene membrane was observed for experiments with the water-saturated strip gas. The rate of VOC removal in these experiments depends on mass transfer in the aqueous latex and in the membrane. These results allow estimates of the membrane area to strip VOCs from commercially relevant quantities of acrylic latex paint.