Abstract: Much research is being carried out on alcohol-selective membranes which are used in the separation of alcohol-water mixture with a low concentration.But the selectivity and flux of alcohol-selective membranes such as silicone rubber are too low.Addition to membrane of a sorptive filler with a high selectivity towards alcohol appears to improve both selectivity and flux.Silicious zeolite ZSM-5, a novel type of hydrophobic zeolite,has been used for that purpose.The results presented in this paper indicate that pretreating zeolite by acid, increasing silica/alumina ratio of the zeolite and zeolite content of the membrane can improve the selectivity and flux of the membranes, The separation properties are significantly influenced by feed composition and concentration, and operating temperature as well.

Key words: Zeolite ZSM-5, Silicone rubber membrane, Filling, Alcohol-water separation