DEVELOPMENT OF NOVEL MIXED MATRIX MEMBRANES USING 13X ZEOLITE FILLED SA/WPI FOR THE PERVAPORATION DEHYDRATION OF ISOPROPANOL

Abstract

Novel polymeric membranes were prepared by incorporating different amounts of 13X Zeolite into Sodium alginate/Wheat protein isolate (SA/WPI) blend matrix. The resulting composite membranes were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and the results were used to analyze the possible chemical reaction between SA/WPI and glutaraldehyde. X-ray diffraction, Scanning electron microscopy, and Differential scanning calorimeter were used to analyze the crystallinity, surface morphology and thermal stability of the membranes, respectively. The membranes were tested for pervaporation studies for water /IPA mixtures at different feed water compositions at 30ºC. The experimental results showed that both flux and selectivity increased with increase in zeolite content. Membrane containing 20 wt% of zeolite shows the highest separation selectivity of 4991 with a substantial flux of 0.120 Kg/m2/h at 30ºC containing 10 wt% of water in the feed, suggesting that the membranes could be used effectively to break the azeotropic point of water-IPA mixture, so as to remove small amount of water from IPA.