Zeolite membranes – Recent developments and progress

There is a continuous worldwide interest in zeolite membranes. On the one hand side, we can observe increasing numbers of scientific publications. On the other hand, there are first industrial applications of zeolite membranes in the de-watering of ethanol and i-propanol by LTA membranes. The remarkable progress made in the preparation and characterization of zeolite membranes during the last few years has stimulated several industrial R&D projects exploiting the shape-selectivity of zeolite membranes in mass separation. Above the horizon of separation, several concepts like zeolite (micro) reactors look promising for process intensification. Furthermore, functional zeolite layers can play an important role in the nanotechnology era.