Novel preparation of low-cost support for NaA zeolite membrane by utilizing natural clay

• Published in: Applied water science Vol. 11; no. 10; pp. 1 - 7
• Main Authors: Chen, Gangling, Zhang, Jianying, Ma, Tianlin, Wang, Yujie, Chen, Guihua, Guo, Youzhi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cham Springer International Publishing 01.10.2021; Springer Nature B.V; SpringerOpen
• Subjects: Additives; Aluminum fluorides; Aluminum oxide; Aquatic Pollution; Clay; Comparative Law; Earth and Environmental Science; Earth Sciences; Hydrogeology; Industrial and Production Engineering; Industrial applications; International & Foreign Law; Kaolin; Low cost; Membrane for water treatment; Membrane permeability; Membranes; Mullite; Nanotechnology; Natural clay; Operating costs; Original Article; Permeability; Pore size; Porosity; Precursors; Private International Law; Production costs; Silica; Silicon dioxide; Sintering (powder metallurgy); Supports; Waste Water Technology; Water Industry/Water Technologies; Water Management; Water Pollution Control; Zeolite membrane; Zeolites; Low-cost; Natural clay; Zeolite membrane
• ISSN: 2190-5487; 2190-5495
• DOI: 10.1007/s13201-021-01492-4

The membrane support is the basis for the preparation and application of the zeolite membrane and its cost and properties directly determine the performance of the zeolite membrane as well as its industrial applications. In this paper, the direct synthesis of NaA zeolite membrane on a novel low-cost support via an in situ reaction by utilizing natural clay can enable a significant reduction in manufacturing costs. During the preparation of the support for the NaA zeolite membrane, additives, such as Al 2 O 3 , Al(OH) 3 and AlF 3 , were combined with kaolin clay and used as alumina precursors. Using the resulting porous mullite support, the effects of the firing temperature on the permeability and pore structure of the support were investigated extensively. The results of the experiment showed that silica in the natural clay was reacted by the Al 2 O 3 precursor additives, producing a needle-like mullite in situ that served as a rigid skeleton porous structure for the support. Thus, a network porous structure of the mullite support could be formed during sintering process. The prepared network porous structure mullite supports exhibited a high pure water permeance of 3324 L m 2 h 1  bar 1 , open porosity of 41.8% and a mean pore size of 1.36 µm which was ideal for the preparation of the NaA zeolite membrane.