Composite Membrane with Metal-Organic Framework Based on Polyimide for Propylene/Propane Separation
Current petrochemical product mainly comes from light olefin, such as ethylene and propylene. these olefins can be obtained as mixture form of olefin/paraffin, which is co-product of naphtha cracking process. However, the mixture of light olefin and paraffin is considerably difficult to separate because they have similar physicochemical properties such as density, boiling point, and molecular weight. Cryogenic distillation is currently utilized, but still suffered from high operating cost. Membrane separation with polyimide-based material is a promising alternative due to its lower energy cost and modular operation. Here, we synthesized composite membrane with metal-organic framework (MOF) based on polyimide exhibiting high permeability and selectivity in propylene/propane separation, as well as simple preparation and high stability.