Pervaporation and Gas Separation Using Microporous Membranes

Abstract

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses pervaporation and gas separation using microporous membranes. Structurally, microporous inorganic membranes include crystalline (mainly zeolites) and amorphous (mainly metallic oxides or carbon) materials. The membranes are usually prepared as thin films on porous inorganic supports that provide the mechanical strength. The thickness of the microporous film varies from a few tens of nanometers to a few micrometers. In most cases, the microporous membrane film is coated on the surface of the ultrafiltration (UF) (or mesoporous) inorganic membrane layer. Applications of microporous membranes are molecular separations of gas/liquid mixtures. The molecular sizes of the molecules whose separation is attempted by microporous membranes are mostly less than 1 nm. Therefore, porous membranes are required to have pores of the order of 1 nm or less for high selectivity. There are well-known models describing fluid transport in porous media, which have been applied to porous membranes in order to gain knowledge in the porous structure of the membrane.