The pervaporation of ethanol from dilute aqueous solution through a novel plate composite silicone rubber membrane was investigated.Based upon the well-known resistance-in-series model

the overall mass transfer coefficient across membrane was measured and split into two parts of liquid film mass transfer coefficient and diffusive mass transfer coefficient in membrane

by conducting an ingenious calculation from the experimental data with different skin layer thickness of membranes. This allowed the relative contributions of the liquid film boundary layer resistance and the membrane resistance to be elucidated. Especially

the effects of liquid flow status on the surface of membrane on mass transfer of membrane was revealed

from which the correlations between liquid film mass transfer coefficient and Reynolds number as well as feed temperature could be obtained.