Martins Vanessa F D, Ribeiro Ana M, Plaza Marta G, Santos João C, Loureiro José M, Ferreira Alexandre F P, Rodrigues Alírio E
Laboratory of Separation and Reaction Engineering (LSRE), Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Porto, Rua Dr. Roberto Frias, s/n, 4200-465 Porto, Portugal.
Laboratory of Separation and Reaction Engineering (LSRE), Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Porto, Rua Dr. Roberto Frias, s/n, 4200-465 Porto, Portugal.
J Chromatogr A. 2015 Dec 4;1423:136-48. doi: 10.1016/j.chroma.2015.10.038. Epub 2015 Oct 17.
In the last years several studies were carried out in order to separate gas mixtures by SMB technology; however, this technology has never been implemented on an industrial scale. In the present work, a gas phase SMB bench unit was built and tested for the separation of propane and propylene mixtures, using 13X zeolite extrudates as adsorbent and isobutane as desorbent. Three experiments were performed to separate propane/propylene by gas phase SMB in the bench scale unit with a 4-2-2 configuration, i.e., open loop circuit by suppressing section IV (desorbent regeneration followed by a recycle). Consequently, all the experiments were conducted using an external supply of pure isobutane as desorbent. Parameters such as switching time, extract and raffinate stream flow rates were changed to improve the efficiency of the process. Experimental results have shown that it is feasible to separate propylene from propane by gas phase SMB at a bench scale and that this process is a potential candidate to replace the conventional technologies for the propane/propylene separation. The performance parameters obtained are very promising for future development of this technology, since propylene was obtained in the extract stream with a purity of 99.93%, a recovery of 99.51%, and a productivity of [Formula: see text] . Propane was obtained in the raffinate stream with a purity of 98.10%, a recovery of 99.73% and a productivity of [Formula: see text] . The success of the above mentioned bench scale tests is a big step for the future implementation of this technology in a larger scale.
在过去几年中，开展了多项研究以通过模拟移动床（SMB）技术分离气体混合物；然而，该技术从未在工业规模上得到应用。在本工作中，搭建了一个气相SMB实验台装置，并使用13X沸石挤出物作为吸附剂、异丁烷作为解吸剂，对丙烷和丙烯混合物的分离进行了测试。进行了三项实验，在具有4-2-2配置的实验台规模装置中通过气相SMB分离丙烷/丙烯，即通过抑制第四段（解吸剂再生后再循环）实现开环回路。因此，所有实验均使用外部供应的纯异丁烷作为解吸剂。改变切换时间、抽出液和萃余液流率等参数以提高该过程的效率。实验结果表明，在实验台规模上通过气相SMB从丙烷中分离丙烯是可行的，并且该过程是替代丙烷/丙烯分离传统技术的潜在候选方法。所获得的性能参数对于该技术的未来发展非常有前景，因为在抽出液流中获得的丙烯纯度为99.93%，回收率为99.51%，生产率为[公式：见原文]。在萃余液流中获得的丙烷纯度为98.10%，回收率为99.73%，生产率为[公式：见原文]。上述实验台规模测试的成功是该技术未来大规模应用的重要一步。
