Multilayer membranes based on ceramic materials —Sol-gel synthesis, characterization and membrane performance

Abstract

In nearly all chemical and petrochemical systems, separation of products generally accounts for more than 50% of the capital cost and the greatest part of the energy consumption. It is generally believed that membrane systems can offer benefits in both reducing the energy consumption of the separation stages and lowering the capital expenditure (CAPEX). Microporous ceramic membranes have the potential to overcome the limitation in polymer membranes operation, which has been the subject of a large amount of research worldwide in the last two decades. And most of the research has aimed at the production of the asymmetric multilayered membrane based on amorphous oxides by sol-gel techniques. The paper is to give an overview of publications on ceramic membranes, including less common materials of titania, zirconia, which can be used for pervaporation in corrosive media. Commercially available microporous membranes based on these membrane materials and the membrane economics are also summarized.

Effect of coating steps on uniformity and gas permeability of mesoporous layers in ceramic membranes

“…Increasing the number of sintering process steps results in a change in the lattice dimension that causes stress in the lattice leading to the defectiveness of sol Z and Z layers. In case of sol Z , however, the flexibility of sol Z is higher than that of sols Z and Z due to a higher pH and use of modifying agent (acetylacetone) [27,29] and consequently, the lattice resists and phase transformation does not cause stress in the layer. Comparison of the SEM images for all the sols with two coating steps indicates that the layer of sol Z has the best quality.…”