Iso-butanol dehydration by pervaporation using zeolite LTA membranes prepared on 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane-modified alumina tubes

Dense and phase-pure zeolite LTA membranes were hydrothermally synthesized on 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APTES)-modified macroporous Al2O3 tubes without seeding. Pervaporation experiments were conducted for the separation of liquid water/iso-butanol and water/ethanol mixtures to evaluate the separation performances of the zeolite LTA membranes. A water flux of 4.5 kg/m2 h is obtained at 100 °C for the separation of a 95.0 wt% iso-butanol/5.0 wt% water mixture, and the separation factors of water/iso-butanol are found to be about 3000 for all temperatures and concentrations studied.