Low-energy adsorptive separation by zeolites

Ruobing Bai; Xiaowei Song; Wenfu Yan; Jihong Yu

doi:10.1093/nsr/nwac064

Low-energy adsorptive separation by zeolites

Natl Sci Rev. 2022 Apr 5;9(9):nwac064. doi: 10.1093/nsr/nwac064. eCollection 2022 Sep.

Authors

Ruobing Bai^{1

2}, Xiaowei Song¹, Wenfu Yan¹, Jihong Yu^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Inorganic Synthesis and Preparative Chemistry, College of Chemistry, Jilin University, Changchun 130012, China.
² International Center of Future Science, Jilin University, Changchun 130012, China.

Abstract

Separation of mixture is always necessarily required in modern industry, especially in fine chemical, petrochemical, coal chemical and pharmaceutical industries. The challenge of the separation process is usually associated with small molecules with very similar physical and chemical properties. Among the separation techniques, the commonly used high-pressure cryogenic distillation process with combination of high pressure and very low temperature is heavily energy-consuming, which accounts for the major production costs as well as 10-15% of the world's energy consumption. To this end, the adsorptive separation process based on zeolite sorbents is a promising lower-energy alternative and the performance is directly determined by the zeolite sorbents. In this review, we surveyed the separation mechanisms based on the steric, equilibrium, kinetic and 'trapdoor' effect, and summarized the recent advances in adsorptive separation via zeolites including CO₂, light olefins, C₈ aromatics and hydrogen isotopes. Furthermore, we provided the perspectives on the rational design of zeolite sorbents for the absolute separation of mixtures.

Keywords: CO2 separation; adsorptive separation; hydrogen isotope separation; olefin/paraffin separation; zeolites.

Publication types

Review