Novel Membranes for Olefin/Paraffin Separation

Ethylene and propylene are major chemical industry raw materials and consume a great deal of energy related to their production. Significant energy consumption is employed when cryogenically separating ethane from ethylene and propane from propylene. These cryogenic separations are difficult and are both capital and energy intensive. Membrane processes have been previously evaluated for separating ethylene/ethane or propylene/propane. While somewhat encouraging results have been demonstrated, stability problems have led to systems that have been unable to maintain performance. In many cases the use of silver (Ag+) salts were used to preferentially transport the ethylene or propylene. It is proposed to combine the stability features and high gas transport of Compact Membrane Systems