Energy-efficient extraction of linear alkanes from various isomers using structured metal-organic framework membrane

Extraction of low concentration linear alkanes (C₅-C₇) from various isomers is critical for the petrochemical industry. At present, the separation of alkane isomers is mainly accomplished by distillation, which results in substantial energy expenditure. Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) with well-tailored nanopores have been demonstrated to be capable of realizing molecule-level separation. In this study, oriented HKUST-1 membranes are formulated according to the morphology-biased principle and finally realized with a low dose synthesis method for terminating undesired crystal nucleation and growth. The fully exposed triangular sieving pore array of the membrane induces configuration entropic diffusion to split linear alkanes from mono-branched and di-branched isomers as well as their cyclical counterparts. Typically, the current separation technique consumes 91% less energy than vacuum distillation. Furthermore, our membranes can realize one-step extraction of normal-pentane, normal-hexane and normal-heptane from a ten-component alkane isomer solution that mimics light naphtha.