Thin-film zeolite-filled silicone/PVDF composite membranes were fabricated by incorporating zeolite particles into PDMS (poly(dimethylsiloxane)) membranes. The morphology of zeolite particles and zeolite filled silicone composite membranes were characterized by SEM. The zeolite-filled PDMS/PVDF composite membranes were applied for the pervaporation of ethanol/water mixtures and showed higher flux compared with that reported in literatures. The effect of zeolite loading and Si/Al ratio of zeolite particles on pervaporation performance of ethanol/water mixtures was investigated. With the increase of zeolite loading from 10% to 30%

the total flux increased significantly from 265.0 g/(m2h) to 820.7 g/(m2h) with 5 wt% ethanol feed concentration at 50oC

and the separation factor increased from 11.3 to 13.7. The effects of operation temperature and ethanol feed concentration on pervaporation performance were also studied. As the temperature increased from 40oC to 80oC

the separation factor varied from 12.1 to 13.7 which maintained the maximum value at 50oC

and the total flux increased exponentially from 435.5 g/(m2h) to 2993.8 g/(m2h) with 30% zeolite loading. Besides

the zeolite filled PDMS/PVDF composite membrane with 30% zeolite loading was ethanol perm-selective over a wide range of ethanol feed concentration (5 wt%-90 wt%)

and especially showed excellent pervaporation performance in the low concentration range.