Background

Ethene is one of the world’s most widely used chemical, and the separation of olefins from paraffins is an important process required to obtain pure olefin feedstocks. The current method used to produce olefins, the steam-cracking process, produces a mixture of olefins and paraffins which are then separated by cryogenic distillation. This method requires lots of head and capital and there is a market for a more energy efficient separation methods – solid sorbents and facilitated-transport membranes.

Technology Overview

Researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder have developed a sorbent for solid-state that can bind to significant amount of ethane/ethylene gas with high selectivities (390 and 340 respectively). The newly designed materials are silver(I)-based, and these silver(I) sites are ideal for absorbing ethene/ethane, showing good ethene sorption capacities, as well as selectivities one order of magnitude higher than previously reported materials (). Removing the coordinated solvent (CH₃CN) causes the metal ion site to become activated. This removal can be achieved at room temperature, in-vacuo.

Stage of Development

Proof of concept.

Benefits

Increased synthetic control
No need to control secondary reactivity
More precise control over ethene binding

Applications

Oil and petroleum purification
Ethylene/Ethane purification

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Solid-State Copper(I) Sorbents for Olefin/Paraffin Separations