Application of Molecular Simulation Techniques to Estimation of Gas Permeability in Zeolite Membranes

Molecular modeling of gas permeation through zeolite membranes with/without intercrystalline region was carried out. Molecular dynamics (MD) and Monte Carlo (MC) simulations were performed to estimate the diffusion coefficient and adsorption parameters respectively, and our proposed combined method of molecular simulation techniques with a permeation theory (CMP) was used to estimate gas permeability. The calculated permeability of gases (Ar, He, Ne, $N_2$, $0_2$, $CH_4$) at 301 K for the single crystal membrane model was about one order of magnitude larger than the experiential values, although the dependence on the molecular weight of the permeating species agreed with experiments. On the other hand, the estimated permeability using the diffusivity and adsorption parameters of the intercrystalline region model was in good agreement with the experiments. The consistency between experiments and the estimated values means the importance of considering the intercrystalline region and the validity of CMP method to predict the performance of zeolite membranes.