• Membrane Journal
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.103-107
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• 2008

Membrane process has been focused as an alternative separation process because not only it exhibits a high selectivity compared with a traditional distillation process, but also it is known to be an energy saving separation process. Inorganic membrane, especially zeolite membrane, has been studied since it can be operated in severe conditions compared to the organic membranes. Recently, new zeolite materials are tested as an inorganic membrane material to overcome disadvantages of existing zeolite membranes. Kalsilite can be used as an inorganic membrane material for gas separation and selective water separation from water/organic mixtures because it is expected to be hydrophilic resulted from Si/Al ratio of 1 like zeolite 4A and has a narrow pore size of 0.36 nm. In this study, kalsilite was synthesized by a new economical hydrothermal process using Si : Al : K : $H_2O$ mole ratio of 1 : 1 : 8 : 60. The synthesized kalsilite powder was confirmed by XRD and has a mean diameter of $2.73{\mu}m$. The vapor adsorption test showed the synthesized kalsilite is hydrophilic.