Multiscale screening of metal-organic frameworks for one-step ethylene purification in pressure-swing adsorption processes

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Author(s)

  • Yageng Zhou
  • Xiang Cao
  • Jin Shang
  • Kai Sundmacher
  • Teng Zhou

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Detail(s)

Original languageEnglish
Article numbere18544
Journal / PublicationAIChE Journal
Volume70
Issue number11
Online published24 Jul 2024
Publication statusPublished - Nov 2024

Abstract

Purification of polymer-grade (99.9%) C2H4 from C2 hydrocarbon mixture is industrially important but challenging. Cryogenic distillation is energy intensive. Recently, pressure/vacuum swing adsorption (P/VSA) processes using metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) as adsorbents have been attracting increasing attention as an alternative technology. A multiscale hierarchical framework is proposed to select promising MOFs and design suitable P/VSA processes by combining property-based material screening and model-based process optimization. Using this framework, we successfully identified seven promising one-step C2H4 purification MOFs that outperformed the benchmark TJT-100 in both C2H4 purity and recovery for the 5/90/5 C2H2/C2H4/C2H6 feed mixture. Among them, OFUCAV exhibited the highest C2H4 productivity of 0.158 mol/m3/s while JAVTAC demonstrated the lowest energy consumption of 42.76 kWh/tonne. The latter can potentially save 80% of the energy consumption compared to cryogenic distillation. Moreover, these two P/VSA processes show very high robustness in response to composition fluctuations in the feed stream. © 2024 American Institute of Chemical Engineers.

Research Area(s)

  • ethylene purification, high-throughput screening, metal-organic framework, pressure/vacuum swing adsorption, process simulation and optimization