Permeation Membrane and Method for Producing a Permeation Membrane

Simple SummaryContent extracted from patent full text and abstract with AI.

The invention is a novel permeation membrane and its production method, primarily designed for use in separating materials at the molecular level, such as removing water from gas mixtures. The membrane is made from an inorganic, semi-permeable (typically zeolite) material with an added non-porous substance (such as amorphous carbon) selectively filling the defects and intercrystalline spaces within the membrane. This process effectively blocks undesired passageways, allowing only specific small molecules—such as water—to permeate while blocking others like hydrogen.

Use CasesContent extracted from patent full text and abstract with AI.

• Industrial gas dehydration (removal of water from gases like hydrogen, nitrogen, methane, or CO2)
• Process gas purification in the petrochemical and chemical industries
• High-purity water extraction from gas streams
• Selective separation of gases (e.g., CO2/N2, H2O/H2) in energy or environmental technology
• Improved membranes for pervaporation and gas separation units
• Membrane reactors for chemical synthesis requiring controlled reactant/product separation

BenefitsContent extracted from patent full text and abstract with AI.

• Significantly improved membrane selectivity by blocking defects, enabling near-ideal separation performance
• Enhanced mechanical and chemical stability of the membrane due to the inorganic and amorphous carbon combination
• Reduction of unwanted permeation pathways (defects), leading to higher product purity and efficiency
• Applicability to various zeolite structures and related frameworks, allowing for customization to specific separation tasks
• Enables efficient separation of small, similar-sized molecules (e.g., water from hydrogen) that are challenging to separate by conventional membranes
• Potential for scalable manufacturing using existing membrane and materials processing technology

Technical Classifications (CPCs)

Inventors & Applicants

Patent Abstract

The invention relates to a method for producing a permeation membrane. The permeation membrane can be used in particular in the field of membrane-based material separations. The aim of the invention is to produce or provide a permeation membrane that is only permeable to materials for which an ideal permeation membrane, i.e. one without inherently occurring defects, is designed. According to the invention, this is achieved by a permeation membrane which consists of an inorganic semi-permeable substance in which an additional substance is incorporated in some locations such that existing intermediate spaces in the semi-permeable substance are at least partly filled by the additional substance and thus only the intermediate spaces are blocked for a permeating species.