Separation of C6 Paraffins Using Zeolitic Imidazolate Frameworks: Comparison with Zeolite 5A

The separation of paraffin isomers is a very important topic in the petrochemical industry. Zeolite 5A is industrially used to sieve alkane isomers, but its pore size does not allow the separation of monobranched and dibranched alkanes by a kinetic mechanism. In this publication, we compare three ZI...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inIndustrial & engineering chemistry research Vol. 51; no. 12; pp. 4692 - 4702
Main Authors Peralta, David, Chaplais, Gérald, Simon-Masseron, Angélique, Barthelet, Karin, Pirngruber, Gerhard D
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Washington, DC American Chemical Society 28.03.2012
Subjects
Applied sciences
Chemical engineering
Exact sciences and technology
Zeolite
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Summary:The separation of paraffin isomers is a very important topic in the petrochemical industry. Zeolite 5A is industrially used to sieve alkane isomers, but its pore size does not allow the separation of monobranched and dibranched alkanes by a kinetic mechanism. In this publication, we compare three ZIF materials in the separation of C6-paraffin isomers: ZIF-8, ZIF-76, and a new material called IM-22. The performance of the materials is evaluated by a breakthrough curve of binary mixtures of n-hexane, 3-methylpentane, and 2,2-dimethylbutane. We show that ZIF-8 is a very attractive alternative to zeolite 5A because it exhibits a high (kinetic) selectivity for the adsorption of linear alkanes and at the same time a high adsorption capacity. The new material IM-22, a ZIF with CHA topology, seems to be particularly suited for the separation of mono- and dibranched paraffin isomers.
ISSN:0888-5885
1520-5045
DOI:10.1021/ie202995g