• Membrane Journal
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.260-268
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• 2020

Mixed-matrix carbon molecular sieve membranes containing conventional and hierarchically structured 5A were synthesized for application in oxygen (O₂)/nitrogen (N₂) separation. In general, incorporating 5A fillers into porous carbon matrices dramatically increased the permeability of the membrane with a marginal decrease in selectivity, resulting in very attractive O₂/N₂ separation performances. Hierarchical zeolite 5A, which contains both microporous and mesoporous domains, improved the separation performance further, indicating that the mesopores in the zeolite can serve as an additional path for rapid gas diffusion without sacrificing O₂/N₂ selectivity substantially. This facile strategy successfully and cost-effectively pushed the performance close to the Robeson upper bound. It produced high performance membranes based on Matrimid^® 5218 polyimide and zeolite 5A, which are inexpensive commercial products.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.51 no.4
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• pp.476-481
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• 2013

Ethylbenzene (EB) which has a similar physical properties with p-xylene (pX) was separated from EB/pX mixture by using MFI-type zeolite (TS-1, ZSM-5, and Silicalite-1) coated membranes. The zeolites were synthesized by microwave method to reduce the synthesis time and uniformly formed zeolite particles were coated on the ${\alpha}$-almina tubular support with a thickness of $3-4{\mu}m$. Separation factor and permeation flux of the synthesized zeolite coated membranes were measured to survey the best performance of ethylbenzene separation from different composition of EB/pX mixtures. When the EB/pX mixture of 5:5 molar ratio applied for the separation experiment, it represented the highest separation factor. We also have studied about the effect of the atomic composition of zeolites on the separation performance within the temperature range from 160 to $220^{\circ}C$. TS-1 showed the highest permeation flux of $1,666mol/m^{2*}s^*Pa$ and Silicate-1 showed the highest separation factor of 1.73 at $200^{\circ}C$ respectively.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.189-193
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• 2009

The present work was attempted to improve the performance for the removal of water from ethanol/water mixtures through the ion-exchanged zeolite membrane in which $Na^{+}$ ion was substituted to either $K^{+}$ or $Ca^{2+}$ ion. The membranes were ion-exchanged with 0.5 mole/L aqueous solution of either KCl or $CaCl_2$ at $80^{\circ}C$ for 4 hrs. In case of the ion-exchanged membrane in which $Na^{+}$ ion was substituted to $K^{+}$ ion, the total flux was decreased from $900\;g/m^2{\cdot}hr{\sim}2,500\;g/m^2{\cdot}hr$ to $600\;g/m^2{\cdot}hr{\sim}2,000\;g/m^2{\cdot}hr$ and the separation factor was increased from $600{\sim}2,200$ to $850{\sim}2,500$ compared to the NaA type zeolite membrane. And in case of the ion-exchanged membrane in which $Na^{+}$ ion is substituted to $Ca^{2+}$ ion, both the total flux and selectivity of water showed the similar tendency compared to the NaA type zeolite membrane. It is thought that the improved separation would be possible if the pore size of the zeolite membrane is controlled by the ion exchange.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.159-166
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• 2006

MFI(Mobil Five) structured hydrophobic ZSM-5 zeolite membrane was used for selective pervaporation of trichlorinated organic compounds(trichloromethane, trichloroethane, trichloroethylene) from their aqueous solutions. ZSM-5 zeolite membrane was hydrothermally synthesized on the inside of a porous stainless steel tube by secondary growth employing ZSM-5 seed powders. Separation factors for each binary mixtures were observed $16{\sim}66$ for trichloromethane/water, $3.3{\sim}4.6$ for trichloroethane/water and $1.4{\sim}8$ for trichloroethylene/water at the experimental conditions of the feed mole fraction from 0.0001 to 0.001 with temperature ranged $25{\sim}35^{\circ}C$.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.487-498
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• 2017

In this study, pervaporation performances of water/methanol and water/butanol mixture were evaluated using zeolite 4A membranes manufacutred by FINETECH by experimental works and numerical modeling. Permeation and separation characteristics, such as flux and separation factor, were analyzed by gas chromatography (TCD) and liquid nitrogen traps. Experiments have shown that water is selectively separated from a mixture of water and methanol (separation factor up to approximately 250) and water and butanol (separation factor up to approximately 1,500). Generalized Maxwell Stefan (GMS) theory was implemented to predict pervaporation behaviors of water/alcohol mixtures and diffusional coefficients of zeolite layer were obtained through parameter estimation using $MATLAB^{(R)}$ optimization toolbox. Since the pore size of zeolite 4A are much larger than kinetic diameter of water molecules and smaller than those of methanol and butanol, zeolite 4A membranes can be applied to in situ water removal process such as membrane reactors or hybrid reaction-dehydration process.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.351-360
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• 2018

In this study, propylene/propane separation mechanism through NaY zeolite membrane was investigated. As permeation temperature increased, both propylene and propane permeances increased, saturated and decreased again, and a maximum selectivity was shown at around 50 to $60^{\circ}C$. Propane permeance in mixed gas experiment was much smaller than that in single gas experiment, and propylene/propane mixed gas selectivity was much larger than single gas permselectivity. As permeation time increased in transient permeation experiment, propylene permeance initially increased and saturated, while propane permeance decreased and saturated. All the experimental results announced that propylene/propane separation through NaY zeolite membrane was from preferentially adsorbed propylene molecules. The adsorbed propylene molecules efficiently prevented propane molecules from permeating through the membrane, and sufae diffused through the membrane. NaY zeolite capillary membrane prepared in the present study showed a high mixed gas selectivity of 12 and high propylene permeance of 497 GPU for a propylene/propane (89 : 11) mixture at $50^{\circ}C$ and 4 bar. Therefore, it was concluded that NaY zeolite membrane is one of promising membrane materials for propylene/propane separation due to the low cost and high separation performance.

• Clean Technology
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.239-248
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• 2018

In this study, pervaporation experiments of water, ethanol and IPA (Isopropyl alcohol) single components and water/ethanol, water/IPA mixtures were carried out using zeolite 4A membranes developed by Fine Tech Co. Ltd. Those membranes were fabricated by hydrothermal synthesis (growth in hydrothermal condition) after uniformly dispersing the zeolite seeds on the tubular alumina supports. They have a pore size of about $4{\AA}$ by ion exchange of $Na^+$ to the LTA structure with Si/Al ratio of 1.0, and shows strong hydrophilic property. Physical characteristics of prepared membranes were evaluated by using SEM (surface morphology), porosimetry (macro- or meso- pore analysis), BET (micropore analysis), and load tester (compressive strength). Pervaporation experiments with various temperature and concentration conditions confirmed that the zeolite 4A membrane can selectively separate water from ethanol and IPA. Water/ethanol separation factor was over 3,000 and water/IPA separation factor was over 1,500 (50 : 50 wt%, initial feed concentration). Pervaporation behaviors of single components and binary mixtures were predicted using ACM (activity coefficient model), GMS (generalized Maxwell Stefan) model and DGM (Dusty Gas Model). The adsorption and diffusion coefficients of the zeolite top layer were obtained by parameter estimation using GA (Genetic Algorithm, stochastic optimization method). All the calculations were carried out using MATLAB 2018a version.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.198-205
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• 2008

A novel technology for homogeneous deposition of zeolite particles on a porous support was developed so that those particles played a seeding role for the growth of zeolite crystals. After the particles were dispersed in water, the aqueous solution was 134 through the bore of a porous tubular support. By keeping the other side of the support in a vacuum, the aqueous solution passed through the pores of the support, leading the particles to be homogeneously deposited on the support. The amount of the deposited particles was investigated by changing the following operating parameters: a particle concentration in the solution, a time for deposition, and the feeding rate of the solution. The amount of the deposited particles increased from 0.0019 g to 0.0208 g as the concentration of the particles was changed from 0.01 wt% to 0.3 wt%, while the feeding rate and the deposition time were kept to 100 mL/min and 4 min, respectively. As the deposition time was varied from 1 min to 4 min, the deposition amount increased from 0.0004g to 0.0019g at the typical condition of the rest parameters. Also, it was observed that the deposited weight increased from 0.0029 g to 0.01 g as the feeding rate increased from 100 mL/min to 300 mL/min. However, the total permeance of water and ethanol decreased through the zeolite membrane as the deposited weight increased.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.263-275
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• 2019

In the present study, thickness of MOR zeolite membranes was controlled by changing seed size, seeding amount, and aging time of hydrothermal solution, and then effect of membrane thickness on pervaporative ethanol dehydration for 90 wt.% ethanol-water mixture was investigated. First, nanosize MOR zeolite seeds with a diameter of 20 to 30 nm was successfully prepared by planetary milling a laboratory synthesized MOR zeolites and the coating amount was controlled by seed concentration and infiltration volume of coating solution during vacuum-assisted seeding. As seeding amount decreased, membrane thickness was reduced up to around $4{\mu}m$. The MOR zeolite membrane having a thickness of $4{\mu}m$ showed a water/ethanol separation factor of 760 and water flux of $1.0kg/m^2h$. The excellent water flux was due to the reduced membrane thickness which was derived from the nanosize seed. Therefore, it could be concluded that membrane thickness control by using nanosize seed can be a crucial factor to improve pervaporative water flux of MOR zeolite membrane.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.25-30
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• 2006

The NaA zeolite membrane was synthesized on the surface of a porous ${\alpha}$-alumina support from the reaction solution composed of 1Si : 1Na : 4Na $6H_{2}O$. The pervaporation performance of the synthesized NaA zeolite membrane was investigated for the iso-propyl alcohol (IPA) aqueous solution according to the different feed concentration and the different operating temperature. The total flux decreases by increasing the feed IPA concentration and increases by increasing the temperature. The total flux was about $4.0{\times}10^3g/m^2\;hr\;at\;60^{\circ}C$ and 0.6 mole fraction of IPA and the separation factor was $1.8{\times}10^7\;at\;60^{\circ}C$ and 0.8 mole fraction of IPA. The separation performance of water through the NaA membrane was found to be superior to that obtainable with a distillation process just by comparison of the vapor-liquid equilibrium data.