Elucidating the Mechanisms of Paraffin-Olefin Separations Using Nanoporous Adsorbents: An Overview

Overview

Journal iScience

Publisher Cell Press

Date 2021 Sep 27

PMID 34568784

Citations 1

Authors

Dipendu Saha

Min-Bum Kim

Alexander J Robinson

Ravichandar Babarao

Praveen K Thallapally

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Light olefins are the precursors of all modern-day plastics. Olefin is always mixed with paraffins in the time of production, and therefore it needs to be separated from paraffins to produce polymer-grade olefin. The state-of-the-art separation technique, cryogenic distillation, is highly expensive and hazardous. Adsorption could be a novel, sustainable, and inexpensive separation strategy, provided a suitable adsorbent can be designed. There are different types of mechanisms that were harnessed for the separation of olefins by adsorption, and in this review, we have focused our discussion on those mechanisms. These mechanisms include, (a) Affinity-based separation, like pi complexation and hydrogen bonding, (b) Separation based on pore size and shape, like size-exclusion and gate-opening effect, and (c) Non-equilibrium separation, like kinetic separation. In this review, we have elaborated each of the separation strategies from the fundamental level and explained their roles in the separation processes of different types of paraffins and olefins.

Citing Articles

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Comroe M, Kolasinski K, Saha D Molecules. 2022; 27(17).

PMID: 36080420 PMC: 9457708. DOI: 10.3390/molecules27175653.

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