We successfully developed zeolite membranes with hydrophilic character, by choosing appropriate zeolites in terms of hydrophilicity and high acid tolerance. We evaluated thus developed membranes by their pervaporation (PV) performance, dehydration from acidic organic solvent. The zeolite membranes we developed, based on merlinoite (MER), chabazite (CHA) or phillipsite (PHI), are shown to exhibit stable dehydration performance, respectively. We successfully applied the membranes to the selective removal of water in an ester condensation reaction starting from a stoichiometric mixture of a carboxylic acid and an alcohol. The availability of pervaporation-assisted ester condensation reaction was validated by various kinds of combinations of carboxylic acid and alcohols, which implies the general availability of pervaporation-assisted process intensification by zeolite membranes.
Nagase T, Kiyozumi Y, Hasegawa Y, Mizukami F, Clay Sci., 12, 100, 2005
Inoue T, Hasegawa Y, Nagase T, Kiyozumi Y, Hamakawa S, Mizukami F, in Combinatorial methods and informatics in materials science (Materials Research Society Symposium Proceedings Volume 894), M. J. Fasolka, Q. Wang, R. A. Potyrailo, T. Chikyow, U. S. Schubert and A. Korkin Eds., Materials Research Society, Boston, p. 211, 2005