Issue 41, 2019

Olefin/paraffin separation through membranes: from mechanisms to critical materials

Abstract

The separation of olefins and paraffin is one of the most challenging and energy-intensive processes, which has attracted increasing attention over the past decades. The well-established separation technology in industry, the so-called cryogenic high-pressure distillation, requires large distillation columns with 120 to 180 trays because of the similar sizes and boiling points of olefins and paraffin, which consumes a huge amount of energy. In addition to the traditional cryogenic distillation, non-thermal separation processes such as preferential adsorption and membrane separation have been developed to circumvent the utilization of heat and diminish the energy consumption. Membrane separation shows great advantages for olefin/paraffin separation due to their low energy consumption and continuous operation. Additionally, the rapid development of novel porous materials, e.g., metal organic frameworks (MOFs), covalent organic frameworks (COFs), and polymers of intrinsic microporosity (PIMs) has further boosted the research on the membrane separation of olefins and paraffin in recent years. In this review, we first summarized the separation mechanisms adopted to date for olefin/paraffin separation. Then, we summarized the materials used for the fabrication of membranes and separation, including traditional dense polymers, inorganic zeolites, carbon molecular sieves (CMSs) and newly developed MOFs. Special attention was paid to the new separation mechanisms, novel porous materials and strategies for membrane fabrication.

Graphical abstract: Olefin/paraffin separation through membranes: from mechanisms to critical materials

Article information

Article type
Review Article
Submitted
13 jún 2019
Accepted
14 aug 2019
First published
14 aug 2019

J. Mater. Chem. A, 2019,7, 23489-23511

Olefin/paraffin separation through membranes: from mechanisms to critical materials

J. Hou, P. Liu, M. Jiang, L. Yu, L. Li and Z. Tang, J. Mater. Chem. A, 2019, 7, 23489 DOI: 10.1039/C9TA06329C

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements