Separation of Water/Alcohol by Small-pore Zeolite Membranes and their Application for Membrane Reactor

摘要

Commercially available zeolite membranes such as LTA, T-type (ERI;OFF), FAU, CHA and DDR are grown on the surface of porous cylindrical α-alumina tubes by a hydrothermal treatment. These membranes which are composed of inter-grown zeolite crystal layer of ca. 5-20 μm thickness on the surface of the tubes show excellent water permselective performance in pervaporation (PV) and vapor permeation (VP) for water/organic liquid mixtures.1,2) In order to purify i-propanol from cleaning process in industries such as precision machinery and electronics, and also to dehydrate ethanol used in food industry, PV or VP equipment using such zeolite membranes has been used practically. In this presentation, we focused on pervaporation and vapor permeation of water/methanol separation by zeolite membranes in order to apply for a membrane reactor by removing water from a reaction media. 3)