Ethylene/ethane separation by gas-phase SMB in binderfree zeolite 13X monoliths

In this work, binderfree zeolite 13X monoliths were tested as a new promising material for high purity ethylene production from olefin/paraffin mixtures by gas-SMB technology. To characterize the adsorbent and its potential for the target separation, the equilibrium isotherms of ethane, ethylene, and propane were measured gravimetrically, in a temperature range from 323 K to 423 K, and pressure up to 7 bar. Dynamic studies were performed at 373 K and 1.5 bar in the gas-SMB bench-scale unit. For the experiment with 0.48/0.52 ethane/ethylene (molar based) feed composition, an ethylene purity of 97.7% was obtained, with a recovery above 90% and productivity of 16.9 kgC2H4∙h-1∙mbed-3. Furthermore, the mathematical SMB model and the regions of separation were determined based on experimental data. This work experimentally demonstrated it is possible to produce high purity grade ethylene with a high recovery using binderfree zeolite 13X monoliths as adsorbent and propane as desorbent.