Publications Details

Publications / Journal Article

Separation of p-Xylene from Multicomponent Vapor Mixtures using Tubular MFI Zeolite Membranes

Gu, Xuehong; Dong, Junhang; Nenoff, Tina M.; Ozokwelu, Dickson E.

MFI zeolite membranes have been synthesized on tubular α-alumina substrates to investigate the separation of p-xylene (PX) from m-xylene (MX) and o-xylene (OX) in multicomponent mixtures and ranges of feed pressure and operating temperature. 1,3,5-triisopropylbenzene was added to the feed stream for online membrane modification. Separation of PX from MX and OX through the MFI membranes relies primarily on shape-selectivity when the xylene sorption level in the zeolite is sufficiently low. For an eight-component mixture containing hydrogen, hydrocarbons, PX, MX, and OX, PX/(MX+OX) selectivity of 7.71 with PX flux of 6.8×10-6mol/m2.s was obtained at 250°C and atmospheric feed pressure. © 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.