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Xenon Recovery by DD3R Zeolite Membranes: Application in Anaesthetics
Author(s) -
Wang Xuerui,
Zhang Yuting,
Wang Xiaoyu,
AndresGarcia Eduardo,
Du Peng,
Giordano Lorena,
Wang Lin,
Hong Zhou,
Gu Xuehong,
Murad Sohail,
Kapteijn Freek
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
angewandte chemie
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1521-3757
pISSN - 0044-8249
DOI - 10.1002/ange.201909544
Subject(s) - permeance , membrane , zeolite , chemistry , selectivity , gas separation , analytical chemistry (journal) , chemical engineering , chromatography , organic chemistry , permeation , catalysis , biochemistry , engineering
Xe is only produced by cryogenic distillation of air, and its availability is limited by the extremely low abundance. Therefore, Xe recovery after usage is the only way to guarantee sufficient supply and broad application. Herein we demonstrate DD3R zeolite as a benchmark membrane material for CO 2 /Xe separation. The CO 2 permeance after an optimized membrane synthesis is one order magnitude higher than for conventional membranes and is less susceptible to water vapour. The overall membrane performance is dominated by diffusivity selectivity of CO 2 over Xe in DD3R zeolite membranes, whereby rigidity of the zeolite structure plays a key role. For relevant anaesthetic composition (<5 % CO 2 ) and condition (humid), CO 2 permeance and CO 2 /Xe selectivity stabilized at 2.0×10 −8 mol m −2 s −1 Pa −1 and 67, respectively, during long‐term operation (>320 h). This endows DD3R zeolite membranes great potential for on‐stream CO 2 removal from the Xe‐based closed‐circuit anesthesia system. The large cost reduction of up to 4 orders of magnitude by membrane Xe‐recycling (>99+%) allows the use of the precious Xe as anaesthetics gas a viable general option in surgery.