Membranes for olefin-paraffin separation: An industrial perspective

In the next decade, separation science will be an important research topic in addressing complex challenges like reducing carbon footprint, lowering energy cost, and making industrial processes simpler. In industrial chemical processes, particularly in petrochemical operations, separation and product refining steps are responsible for up to 30% of energy use and 30% of the capital cost. Membranes and adsorption technologies are being actively studied as alternative and partial replacement opportunities for the state-of-the-art cryogenic distillation systems. This paper provides an industrial perspective on the application of membranes in industrial petrochemical cracker operations. A gas separation performance figure of merit for propylene/propane separation for different classes of materials ranging from inorganic, carbon, polymeric, and facilitated transport membranes is also reported. An in-house-developed model provided insights into the importance of operational parameters on the overall membrane design.