Ultrafast-adsorption-kinetics molecular sieving of propylene from propane

Abstract

The separation of propylene (C3H6) and propane (C3H8) is very costly due to similar physical-chemical properties and has been listed as one of the seven chemical separations to change the world. High-purity C3H6 is an important raw material to produce polypropylene and acrylonitrile. However, C3H8 is produced as a by-product in the production process of C3H6, which has a similar structure and boiling point as those of C3H6. Traditionally, the separation of C3H6 and C3H8 by distillation has high energy consumption and an unremarkable separation effect. Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop more energy-saving and efficient methods for the separation of C3H6 and C3H8.