Preparation of composite zeolite membrane separator/contactor for ozone water treatment

A composite membrane was prepared by coating high surface area γ-Al2O3 on the porous ceramic support of the ZSM-5 membrane. A thin layer of γ-Al2O3 was coated on the surface of the individual ceramic particles to increase the contact surface by about 50 m2. Ozone treatment of phthalate contaminated water showed that ozonization with traditional sparger in a batch reactor yielded a 1.1% decrease in TOC, and simply replacing the sparger with a membrane distributor gave a 20% TOC removal. Providing a membrane contactor increases this value to 25%, while simultaneous membrane pervaporation of water resulted in 40% TOC degradation. This shows that it is possible to achieved enhanced ozone water treatment from a compact membrane reactor unit that uses the combined function of membrane as distributor, contactor and separator.