Commercially available ion-selective membranes are modified to better meet the needs of electro-organic synthetic processes. The process under study is the conversion of formaldehyde to ethylene glycol. The transport of all species present in several versions of this process is tracked for several state- of-the-art membranes, and correlated with current density, temperature, and electrolyte flow. A working model of membrane transport is developed. Membranes are modified to minimize solvent and neutral molecule diffusion. Most electrochemical membranes used today were designed either for the chloralkali industry or for electrodialysis; an electro-organic process, however, places very different requirements on the membranes. Ion-exchange membranes designed specifically for organic electrosynthesis will provide increased efficiency for a number of electrochemical processes, including production of ethylene glycol.
