Nanocomposite MFI-alumina hollow fibre membranes prepared via pore-plugging synthesis: Influence of the porous structure of hollow fibres on the gas/vapour separation performance
Date
2010
Authors
Deng Z.
Nicolas C.-H.
Daramola M.O.
Sublet J.
Schiestel T.
Burger A.J.
Guo Y.
Giroir-Fendler A.
Pera-Titus M.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
One major drawback in the synthesis of zeolite membranes is the lack of reproducibility ascribed to the support quality. In this paper, a gas-liquid displacement technique was used prior to pore-plugging hydrothermal synthesis to evaluate the quality of hollow fibre supports in terms of pore size distribution of surface pores. Using these supports, four nanocomposite MFI-hollow fibre membrane families were identified, showing different gas/vapour separation performance. The effective MFI thickness of these membranes (0.6-1.2μm) was computed from pure N2 and CO2 permeance using Maxwell-Stefan modelling, while their separation performance was evaluated in the separation of n-butane/H2, CO2/N2 and ternary xylene isomer mixtures. The MFI-alumina hollow fibres displaying the best quality corresponded to those synthesized using hollow fibres with surface pore size distributions centred at 0.2μm, suggesting more efficient pore plugging. Grain boundaries between nearby zeolite crystals only appear to play a role in the case of xylene isomer separation. © 2010 Elsevier B.V.
Description
Keywords
Gas liquids, Hollow fibre, Hollow-fibre membrane, Maxwell-Stefan, Pore plugging, Porous structures, Reproducibilities, Separation performance, Support quality, Surface pores, Xylene isomers, Zeolite crystals, Zeolite membrane, Aromatic hydrocarbons, Fibers, Grain boundaries, Hydrothermal synthesis, Isomers, Nanocomposites, Polyacrylonitriles, Pore size, Quality control, Size determination, Size distribution, Size separation, Xylene, Gas permeable membranes, aluminum oxide, butane, carbon dioxide, hydrogen, nanocomposite, nitrogen, xylene, zeolite, article, crystal, evaluation, gas, hollow fiber membrane, isomer, performance, porosity, priority journal, separation technique, synthesis, thickness, vapor
Citation
Journal of Membrane Science
364
02-Jan
364
02-Jan