Catia Algieri
Institute on Membrane Technology ITM-CNR, Italy
Title: MFI Zeolite Membranes for Water Desalination
Biography
Biography: Catia Algieri
Abstract
Zeolite membranes due to their crystalline structure and to their pore diameters close to the molecular size of different species have attracted the interest of many researchers in the separation processes field. They can be also used as membrane reactors owing to their high thermal and chemical resistance. Considering all these properties, water separation from organic solvents and water treatmentare other possible applications of these membranes. For example, about the ion removal from water, very interested in desalination process is the employ of MFI membranes, because their pore size (about 5.5 Å) is lower than the major kinetic diameters of various hydrated ions.In this work MFI zeolite membranes were synthesized on ï¡-Al2O3 tubular supports. In particular, the membranes were prepared by a secondary growth method using the cross-flow seeding procedure. Subsequently, these membranes were characterized by means of single gas and pure water permeation tests and then used in vacuum membrane distillation to investigate their potential application in water desalination.The membrane performance in distillation process was investigated using both distilled water and salt solutions with different NaCl concentration (0.2, 0.6 and 1.2 M) and using two different operating conditions. In the first case the membranes were tested in a continuous way without washing treatment. In the second one the system was washed at the end of each experiment.The results evidenced high and constant fluxes and salt rejection values higher than 98% for all the concentration considered.