ChE 2026 Spring Seminar Series – Jerry Lin, PhD

Details

Speaker: Jerry Y.S. Lin, PhD
Regents’ Professor of Chemical Engineering
School for Engineering of Matter, Transport and Energy
Arizona State University

Title: Hydrophobic Zeolite Membranes for Molecular Separation

Abstract:
Zeolites are microporous crystalline aluminosilicates used for adsorption, ion exchange, and catalysis due to their molecular sieving properties and high stability, and zeolite membranes are a recent development for separation applications. Most zeolite membranes are inherently hydrophilic and thus preferentially permeate water. This characteristic has led to the commercial application of zeolite membranes in molecular separations, particularly for organic solvent dehydration. However, hydrocarbon-selective membranes are highly desirable for applications such as bioseparations and membrane reactors aimed at enhancing product yields. This paper presents a synthesis strategy to enhance the hydrophobicity, and thereby hydrocarbon selectivity, of zeolite membranes by increasing the Si/Al ratio and crystallinity, while maintaining high permeability through membrane thinning. The approach involves synthesizing zeolite membranes on non-aluminum supports (such as porous yttria-doped zirconia and stainless steel) as well as on alumina supports, incorporating a hierarchical mesoporous pure-silica zeolite intermediate layer between the alumina support and the top zeolite separation layer. This intermediate zeolite layer plays two critical roles: it prevents Al ion migration from the alumina support into the synthesis mixture, and it provides a mechanically robust yet permeable foundation that favors nucleation over crystal growth, enabling the formation of a thin, uniform top layer. These efforts culminate in the synthesis of super-hydrophobic MFI-type zeolite membranes. The hydrophobic nature of these membranes results in negligible impact from the presence of steam during gas separation, as demonstrated using H₂/CO₂ binary and H₂/CO₂/H₂O ternary gas mixtures at elevated temperatures (300–550 °C). In contrast, water vapor significantly degrades the separation performance of hydrophilic zeolite membranes. The super-hydrophobic MFI zeolite membranes exhibit high selectivity for hydrocarbons over water, in particular, ethanol or methanol over water.

Biosketch:
Jerry Y.S. Lin is a Regents’ Professor at Arizona State University. He served as Chair of the Chemical Engineering Department at ASU from 2006 to 2009, following a 13-year faculty appointment in Chemical Engineering at the University of Cincinnati. Dr. Lin’s primary research interests include membrane science, adsorption/catalysis, and energy storage. He has authored approximately 400 peer-reviewed publications, primarily in chemical engineering journals, which have collectively garnered over 32,000 citations. Dr. Lin is the inventor or co-inventor of 16 issued and pending U.S. and European patents and is a co-founder of several startups aimed at commercializing inorganic membrane technologies for refinery stream separation and energy storage applications. He has received numerous honors, including the NSF Career Award (1995), the AIChE Institute Award for Excellence in Industrial Gas Technologies (2009), and the AIChE Gerhold Award (2021). Dr. Lin is an elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE), and the North American Membrane Society (NAMS). He currently serves as Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Membrane Science (JMS). He was also an Editor of JMS from 2008 to 2020 and was the founding Editor-in-Chief of JMS Letters.