In this work, chiral activated membranes have been tested for the enantioseparation of the racemic drug propranolol. Polysulfone (PS)‐based membranes have been prepared for this purpose, using N‐hexadecyl‐L‐hydroxyproline (HHP) and L‐di‐n‐dodecyltartrate (L‐DDT) as chiral carriers, respectively. Kinetic experiments have been carried out using a membrane module with two rectangular channels separated by the membrane, which allows for a well‐defined hydrodynamics of the feed and stripping phases.

Propranolol transport across the membrane depends on its diffusion rate from the bulk solution to the membrane surface and also on the relative amount of carrier present in the membrane. Therefore, the influence of both the solute/carrier ratio and the flow rates of the feed and stripping phases on the rate of extraction and on the selectivity of the process was evaluated for both chemical systems. Modeling of kinetic experiments has been performed, and mass transfer coefficients obtained for both systems were compared.