(723a) Performance of Microwave and Autoclave Synthesized Naa Zeolite Membranes for Ethanol/Water Separation

In general, hydrophilic NaA zeolite membranes are used for dehydration of organic solvent. The membranes can be synthesized on alumina support by three different heating methods, namely, microwave, electrophotoresis and autoclave (or conventional heating). Performance and the formation of this zeolite membrane were analyzed using pervaporation technique and XRD/SEM, respectively. From our previous study, the lab-scaled NaA zeolite membrane synthesized possessed the total flux and separation factor of around 0.4-1.3 kg/m².hr and 6,000, respectively.

In this work, the optimum conditions for synthesizing the lab-scaled NaA membranes on tubular alumina support by the aforementioned techniques are investigated to improve the total flux and separation factor of the membranes to higher than 1.3 kg/m².hr and 10,000, respectively.