Supported liquid membrane pervaporation (SLMPV) is a pervaporation process for separatingvolatile organic compounds (VOCs) from their dilute aqueous solution. It simultaneouslyintegrates extraction of the VOCs from the aqueous solution with flash distillation of the VOCsfrom the organic phase. By using a liquid membrane consisting of reactive extractants,pervaporation of primarily acetic acid from its aqueous solutions was studied. Limited studiesof butyric acid were also done. Among various extractants tested, trioctylamine (TOA) andtridodecylamine demonstrated better performances. The SLM is permselective for acetic acidand butyric acid. The acetic acid selectivity can be as high as 33 for a feed of 1 M at 60
C, anorder of magnitude higher than that obtained by any solid polymeric membrane reported in theliterature. The simple SLM system demonstrated long-term stability; for example, decreases ofabout 30% in both pervaporation flux and selectivity were observed over an operational periodof 500 h. A new technique of continuous on-line regeneration of the LM during operationmaintains completely stable operational performance.