(465c) Formulation and Processing of Magnetic-MOF Composite Structured Monoliths for Light Olefin/Paraffin Separation

Separation of olefin/paraffin pairs has been identified as the application where low-energy separation replacements could provide significant reduction in overall energy consumption of the process. Among all the alternative separation techniques examined so far, adsorption appears to be the most promising and energy-efficient approach for light hydrocarbons separation. In that respect, development of smart sorbents that can be regenerated when triggered by external stimuli such as magnetic field can overcome the poor energy utilization of the current adsorbents investigated for this separation. In this work, we report the development of novel magnetic Fe₂O₃@MOF sorbents with core-shell structure and assessment of their adsorption performance in C₂H₆/C₂H₄ separation. The electromagnetic properties of the materials were tuned by varying the Fe₂O₃ nanoparticles composition and particle size, and their effects on adsorption capacity and selectivity of the composite sorbents were systematically investigated. Adsorbent regeneration was carried out under an external magnetic field with varied strength to identify its impact on desorption kinetics and product purity. The sorbent materials were formulated into monolithic contactors via additive manufacturing method. Additionally, multicomponent dynamic adsorption experiments were carried out to gain a better understanding of the materials performance under more realistic conditions. This work builds on previous studies that demonstrate the suitability of novel stimuli-responsive sorbents for next generation of separation processes.