Propylene/propane mixture adsorption on faujasite sorbents

Abstract

The adsorption of propylene and propane on zeolite NaX with and without a saturated (36 wt%) amount of CuCl have been investigated. The single component adsorption isotherms could be well described with a Dual-Site Langmuir model. The dispersion of CuCl results in a decrease of the maximum adsorption capacity of the zeolite for both components. For propylene a strong adsorption via π-complexation with CuCl is present, increasing the adsorption selectivity of the zeolite.The binary mixture (50 : 50) adsorption was determined via breakthrough/desorption experiments at 318, 358 and 408 K with a partial pressure of the two components between 0.8-54 kPa. For NaX the mixture loading could be well described with the IAS-theory and the single component isotherms, both qualitatively and quantitatively. A transition from an enthalpy controlled adsorption at lower loadings to an entropy affected adsorption at higher loadings was observed. The IAS-theory could only qualitatively describe the trends in the observed mixture adsorption for the CuCl/NaX adsorbent. The dispersion of CuCl in NaX results in a modest improvement of the adsorption selectivity for propylene over propane (from 3-7 to 15-30) but at the expense of a reduced capacity.

Propane/Propylene Separation by Simulated Moving Bed II. Measurement and Prediction of Binary Adsorption Equilibria of Propane, Propylene, Isobutane, and 1-Butene on 13X Zeolite

“…This is in accordance with the observations made from the binary breakthrough curves and the Henry's law constants. Moreover, the experimental adsorbed amounts found for this system are in good agreement with the ones reported in the literature (36)(37)(38).…”

Modeling of Breakthrough Curves for Adsorption of Propane, n-Butane, and Iso-Butane Mixture on 5A Molecular Sieve Zeolite

“…Both Ruthven and Reyes (2007) studied the adsorption of propane and propylene on 5A and 13× molecular sieve zeolite. Also, Miltenburg et al (2008) studied the adsorption kinetics of propane and propylene on NaX molecular sieve zeolite.…”

High pressure adsorptive separation of ethylene and ethane on Na-ETS-10

“…Miltenburg et al (2008) tested the separation of ethane/ethylene mixtures working with CuCl/NaX at 358 K and 200 kPa. The use of zeolite 13X in the separation of propane/ propylene mixtures has also been reported in several articles from Delft's and Porto's research groups (Miltenburg et al, 2008;Silva and Rodrigues, 2001;Gomes et al, 2009;Lamia et al, 2007). Uniformly these studies have been conducted at relatively low pressures (less than 200 kPa) and not at high pressures (typically 2000þ kPa) where ethane and ethylene are separated industrially.…”