Microporous membrane: A key to large-scale energy-saving in fuel and petrochemical industry

Reducing energy consumption on the industry sector has increasingly been a strong request to mitigate CO ₂ problem. In particular, in chemical industry about 40% of the total energy is consumed for separation in which 90% or more is used for distillation. Zeolites have superior physicochemical properties, such as molecular sieving and preferential adsorption, in addition to high thermal, chemical, and structural stability. Therefore, researchers have been motivated to apply them as membranes and membrane reactors. In this presentation, we would like to emphasize that R&D of microporous membrane, especially zeolite membrane, is a vital approach for large-scale reduction of energy consumption for separation in petrochemical industry. Two examples will be introduced: acetic acid dehydration through mordenite-type zeolite membrane and silicalite-1 membrane for xylene isomers separation.