Membrane structures and their production and use

Abstract

A method is provided for forming zeolite membranes in internal surfaces of a plurality of conduits in a cylindrical porous ceramic monolith, the conduits extending from one end of the monolith to theother, said method including a step of: flowing a pre-treatment liquid including a zeolite initiating agent into the conduits; causing at least part of a carrier liquid component of the treatment liquid to flow from the conduits into and through the body of the monolith to the exterior;andcausing zeolite crystals to be deposited in the porous internal surfaces of the conduits as the carrier liquidcomponent flows into the monolith. The substrates may be pre-conditioned for membrane formation by a method which comprises: (a) forming an aqueous suspension ofzeolite particles; and (b) passing thesuspension alternately(i)through the tubular conduits and(ii)out through the walls of the tubular conduits so as to deposit a layer of zeolite particles on the inner surfaces ofthe tubular conduits;wherein the porous substrates are treated in chambers arranged e.g in annularly and the suspension is supplied to the chambers from a first common manifold via respective delivery tubes and is recovered via recovery tubes leading to a second common manifold, the first and second manifolds and the supply and recovery tubes being configured so that the branch path to and from each chamber is substantially the same. After pre-conditioning, formation of membranes may be by depositing or crystallizingazeolite membrane on the zeolite particles by gel crystallization.A membrane structureis also provided which comprisesa tubular porous ceramic monolith having tubular conduitseach having an internal diameter of (5) to (9) mmformed within the monolithwitha zeolite membrane formed on the internal surface ofeach of theconduits, wherein either there are four conduits and the monolith is longer than 600 mm or there are five or more conduits.

Description

technical field [0001] The present invention relates to a membrane structure, to a method of pre-conditioning a multi-conduit monolith for forming a membrane structure in a conduit, to a method of treating a plurality of porous substrates for conditioning for a membrane A method of forming a substrate of wherein said porous substrate has tubular conduits formed therein, the present invention relates to a method of treating a plurality of porous substrates to form a membrane in a conduit wherein said plurality of porous substrates has tubular conduits formed therein, The present invention relates to a module comprising various supports or monoliths, and also to the removal of water from organic liquids and / or the purification of water from eg polluted rivers. Background technique [0002] US-A-5362522 (Bratton et al., the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference) relates to the production of membranes and discloses that, while extensive research had been carrie...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

While this dry processing method can be adapted for lab-scale experiments, the method is slow and laborious

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