TY - JOUR
T1 - A facile approach to synthesize SSZ-13 membranes with ultrahigh N2 permeances for efficient N2/CH4 separations
AU - Li, Yanmei
AU - He, Shengnan
AU - Shu, Chaojiu
AU - Li, Xinping
AU - Liu, Bo
AU - Zhou, Rongfei
AU - Lai, Zhiping
N1 - KAUST Repository Item: Exported on 2021-05-11
Acknowledgements: The financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China of China (No. 21938007, 21576131, 21921006 and 21490585) was gratefully acknowledged.
PY - 2021/4/26
Y1 - 2021/4/26
N2 - Separation of inert nitrogen from natural gas by membranes is much more energy-saving than cryogenic distillation but very challenging because the size difference of both gas molecules is quite small. Herein, high-quality and N2-selective SSZ-13 membranes on α-alumina tubes were prepared using a novel synthesis approach called seeded-gel synthesis. Seeded-gel synthesis was more convenient and credible than the conventional secondary growth because a seeding step on the substrate was omitted for the former method. The effect of calcination atmosphere on the quality of membranes was also discussed. SSZ-13 membranes had the fewest defects when ozone calcination was used. The predicted values of single-component N2 and CH4 permeances by the Maxwell-Stefan equations agreed well with the experimental ones. The SSZ-13 membrane exhibited ultrahigh N2 permeance of 850 × 10−9 mol m−2 s−1 Pa−1 (equals 2500 GPU) and a high N2/CH4 selectivity of 13.5 at 298 K and 0.303 MPa feed pressure (absolute). Membrane preparation by seeded-gel method had good reproducibility. The effects of temperature, pressure drop and feed flow rate on membrane performances were investigated for N2/CH4 mixture separations. The membrane also displayed good separation performance in N2/CH4 system either at 2.6 MPa feed pressure or under humid conditions. The continuous SSZ-13 thin membranes prepared by the simple seeded-gel synthesis showed great potentials for energy-efficient N2 removal from unconventional gases.
AB - Separation of inert nitrogen from natural gas by membranes is much more energy-saving than cryogenic distillation but very challenging because the size difference of both gas molecules is quite small. Herein, high-quality and N2-selective SSZ-13 membranes on α-alumina tubes were prepared using a novel synthesis approach called seeded-gel synthesis. Seeded-gel synthesis was more convenient and credible than the conventional secondary growth because a seeding step on the substrate was omitted for the former method. The effect of calcination atmosphere on the quality of membranes was also discussed. SSZ-13 membranes had the fewest defects when ozone calcination was used. The predicted values of single-component N2 and CH4 permeances by the Maxwell-Stefan equations agreed well with the experimental ones. The SSZ-13 membrane exhibited ultrahigh N2 permeance of 850 × 10−9 mol m−2 s−1 Pa−1 (equals 2500 GPU) and a high N2/CH4 selectivity of 13.5 at 298 K and 0.303 MPa feed pressure (absolute). Membrane preparation by seeded-gel method had good reproducibility. The effects of temperature, pressure drop and feed flow rate on membrane performances were investigated for N2/CH4 mixture separations. The membrane also displayed good separation performance in N2/CH4 system either at 2.6 MPa feed pressure or under humid conditions. The continuous SSZ-13 thin membranes prepared by the simple seeded-gel synthesis showed great potentials for energy-efficient N2 removal from unconventional gases.
UR - http://hdl.handle.net/10754/669147
UR - https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0376738821002970
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85104915834&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.memsci.2021.119349
DO - 10.1016/j.memsci.2021.119349
M3 - Article
SN - 1873-3123
VL - 632
SP - 119349
JO - Journal of Membrane Science
JF - Journal of Membrane Science
ER -