High performance ZSM-5 membranes on coarse macroporous α-Al2O3supports for dehydration of alcohols

Synthesis optimization and separation mechanism of ZSM-5 zeolite membranes for pervaporation dehydration of organic solvents

Pervaporation (PV), as an energy-efficient mixture separation technology, plays an important role in the chemical industry. In this work, no organic templates were needed to produce high-performance ZSM-5 membranes with an extremely low Si/Al ratio of 3.3 on α-Al2O3 tubular supports using 100 nm nanoseeds. The effects of preparation parameters on the crystalline phase structures, micromorphologies, and PV separation performance of ZSM-5 membranes were comprehensively investigated. The results revealed that the Si/Al ratio of gels significantly affected both the Si/Al ratio and the crystal orientation of the final ZSM-5 membrane. The optimized ZSM-5 membrane with a thickness of 1.8 μm was utilized to dehydrate various organic solvents via PV, and the influence of the operating parameters on PV dehydration performance was evaluated and is described herein. Furthermore, the permeation behaviors of single gases and PV were examined using permeate molecules within a similar size range to reveal the PV mechanism of the ZSM-5 membrane. The results demonstrated that gas permeation followed Knudsen diffusion, while PV permeation was decreased with decreases in the affinity of molecules, revealing an adsorption-diffusion mechanism that dominated PV dehydration through the ZSM-5 membrane. Moreover, the as-synthesized ZSM-5 membrane had good water permselectivity for water/acetone (e.g., total flux = 1.03 kg/(m2 h), α = 307) and for water/isopropanol (e.g., total flux = 1.49 kg/(m2 h), α = 1070) mixtures compared with other membranes reviewed in the literature. The synthesized ZSM-5 membrane also exhibited excellent reproducibility, high stability, and attractive PV separation performance, demonstrating its significant potential application in the PV dehydration of organic solvents.

Surface-Engineered Inorganic Nanoporous Membranes for Vapor and Pervaporative Separations of Water⁻Ethanol Mixtures

Surface wettability-tailored porous ceramic/metallic membranes (in the tubular and planar disc form) were prepared and studied for both vapor-phase separation and liquid pervaporative separations of water-ethanol mixtures. Superhydrophobic nanoceramic membranes demonstrated more selective permeation of ethanol (relative to water) by cross-flow pervaporation of liquid ethanol–water mixture (10 wt % ethanol feed at 80 °C). In addition, both superhydrophilic and superhydrophobic membranes were tested for the vapor-phase separations of water–ethanol mixtures. Porous inorganic membranes having relatively large nanopores (up to 8-nm) demonstrated good separation selectivity with higher permeation flux through a non-molecular-sieving mechanism. Due to surface-enhanced separation selectivity, larger nanopore-sized membranes (~5–100 nm) can be employed for both pervaporation and vapor phase separations to obtain higher selectivity (e.g., permselectivity for ethanol of 13.9 during pervaporation and a vapor phase separation factor of 1.6), with higher flux due to larger nanopores than the traditional size-exclusion membranes (e.g., inorganic zeolite-based membranes having sub-nanometer pores). The prepared superhydrophobic porous inorganic membranes in this work showed good thermal stability (i.e., the large contact angle remains the same after 300 °C for 4 h) and chemical stability to ethanol, while the silica-textured superhydrophilic surfaced membranes can tolerate even higher temperatures. These surface-engineered metallic/ceramic nanoporous membranes should have better high-temperature tolerance for hot vapor processing than those reported for polymeric membranes.

Uniformly Oriented Zeolite ZSM-5 Membranes with Tunable Wettability on a Porous Ceramic

Facile fabrication of well-intergrown, oriented zeolite membranes with tunable chemical properties on commercially proven substrates is crucial to broadening their applications for separation and catalysis. Rationally determined electrostatic adsorption can enable the direct attachment of a b-oriented silicalite-1 monolayer on a commercial porous ceramic substrate. Homoepitaxially oriented, well-intergrown zeolite ZSM-5 membranes with a tunable composition of Si/Al=25-∞ were obtained by secondary growth of the monolayer. Intercrystallite defects can be eliminated by using Na+ as the mineralizer to promote lateral crystal growth and suppress surface nucleation in the direction of the straight channels, as evidenced by atomic force microscopy measurements. Water permeation testing shows tunable wettability from hydrophobic to highly hydrophilic, giving the potential for a wide range of applications.

Dense and thin 13X membranes on porous α-Al2O3 tubes: preparation, structure and deep purification of oxygenated compounds from gaseous olefin flow

The low contact efficiency, large mass transfer resistance and high operational cost of traditional 13X molecular sieve particle adsorbents (MSPs) have greatly limited their application in deep purification of trace oxygenated compounds from gaseous olefins. Herein, we successfully fabricated dense and thin 13X molecular sieve membranes on a porous α-Al₂O₃ tube (MSCMs) by a combination of 3-aminopropyl triethoxy silane (APTES) surface modification and vacuum pre-coating sol technology for purifying the above impurities. By a solid–solution transformation process, 13X molecular sieve membranes on MSCMs that were continuous and integral without any cracks, pinholes or other defects, and mainly composed of 1–1.5 μm regular 13X crystals with a thickness of 5–6 μm have been achieved. The purification performance of the MSPs, non-APTES functionalized MSCMs (nMSCMs) and MSCMs was evaluated by dynamic adsorption of N₂ or C₂H₄ feed flow containing dimethyl ether, methanol and propanal impurities at room temperature. The results demonstrated that both the nMSCMs and MSCMs could deeply purify the trace amounts of the three oxygenated compounds to below 1 × 10⁻⁶ (mol mol⁻¹) from gaseous olefins at an initial concentration of 20 × 10⁻⁶ (mol mol⁻¹), exhibiting much more excellent purification performance than that of MSPs. In particular, the breakthrough times of MSCMs for dimethyl ether, methanol and propanal were 7 h, 32 h and 51 h in a N₂ system, and 12.1 h, 53 h and 90 h in a C₂H₄ system. The cumulative adsorption amounts of MSCMs for dimethyl ether, methanol and propanal were 12.108 mg g⁻¹, 35.812 mg g⁻¹ and 103.129 mg g⁻¹ in a N₂ system, and 25.88 mg g⁻¹, 94.19 mg g⁻¹ and 256.26 mg g⁻¹ in a C₂H₄ system, respectively. The regeneration experiment also indicated that the MSCMs had a more stable structure and a longer lifetime. The excellent purification performance of MSCMs could be attributed to the continuous 13X molecular sieve layers without non-adsorption interfacial voids. Hence, the MSCMs have great potential for future industrial application of trace oxygenated compound removal from gaseous olefins.

Dense and thin 13X molecular sieve membranes on porous α-Al₂O₃ tubes were successfully fabricated by a combination of 3-aminopropyl triethoxy silane surface modification and vacuum pre-coating sol for purifying trace oxygenated compounds from gaseous olefins.

Vapor-phase transport synthesis of microfibrous-structured SS-fiber@ZSM-5 catalyst with improved selectivity and stability for methanol-to-propylene

Microfibrous-structured SS-fiber@HZSM-5 catalyst prepared by cost-effective and high-efficiency VPT method delivers remarkable improvement in selectivity and stability for the MTP reaction due to the improved diffusion in zeolite shell.