Cuprous-chloride-modified nanoporous alumina membranes for ethylene-ethane separation
- Univ. of Cincinnati, OH (United States). Dept. of Chemical Engineering
- CeraMem Corp., Waltham, MA (United States)
This paper reports an attempt to synthesize a CuCl-modified {gamma}-alumina membrane for separation of ethylene from ethane. CuCl was effectively coated in the 4 nm pore {gamma}-alumina top layers of disk-shaped and tubular alumina membranes by the reservoir method. Permeation of a single gas and binary mixture of ethylene and ethane was measured to characterize separation properties of the modified membranes. Pure ethylene permeance of the CuCl-modified membrane is 10--40% lower than that predicted from the pure ethane permeance by the Knudsen theory. This result is explained by a model based on the adsorbed layer of ethylene via {pi}-complexation. Such an adsorbed layer hinders the diffusion of ethylene in the nanopores of CuCl-modified {gamma}-alumina. Multiple gas permeation measurements on the CuCl-modified membranes show a separation factor for ethylene over ethane larger than the Knudsen value. This confirms a positive contribution of the surface flow of ethylene to the permeance of ethylene in the multiple gas permeation system. A maximum separation factor for ethylene over ethane of 1.4 is obtained for the CuCl-modified membrane at 60 C.
- OSTI ID:
- 682046
- Journal Information:
- Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Research, Vol. 38, Issue 6; Other Information: PBD: Jun 1999
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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