Preparation, characterization and performance evaluation of supported zeolite on porous glass hollow fiber for desalination application

A-type zeolite membranes were synthesized on porous glass hollow fibers that prepared using the in-situ hydrothermal process. The porous glass hollow fibers were prepared using the phase inversion and sintering technique with the addition of yttria stabilized zirconia (YSZ) to improve their porosity. The glass hollow fibers were characterized using the scanning electron microscope (SEM), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), mechanical properties and water permeability. The porosities of pure glass hollow fiber were improved by the addition of YSZ particles, which lead to an increase in the pure water permeability. The water permeability shows that the glass hollow fiber prepared form spinning suspension E, which has 30 wt% zeolite particles and 20 wt% YSZ particles, has the highest permeability of 155.65 L m−2 hr−1 bar−1 compared to the previous work, which was only 4.0 L m−2 hr−1 bar−1. This glass hollow fiber was later used as the support for the incorporation of zeolite membrane for the desalination application. The performance of membranes is separating sodium chloride (NaCl) salt solution were tested using two different setups, namely pressure driven reverse osmosis (RO) and sweeping liquid assisted reverse osmosis (SLRO). The solute flux for 5,000 and 10,000 ppm NaCl salt solutions were 24.45 and 17.86 L m−2 hr−1, respectively. Both operations enabled the solute rejection up to 98%.