Analysis of Models for Olefin/Paraffin Permeation in Glassy Polymeric Membranes

Olefin/paraffin separation is anticipated to be a large market potential in petrochemical industry. Substantial researches to explore various polymeric membranes have indicated that glassy membranes can offer higher olefin/paraffin separation performance. Design of high performance glassy membranes necessitates thorough understanding of the transport mechanisms in these membranes. This study presents investigation on bulk flow and Maxwell-Stefan models for predicting the olefin/paraffin permeation and separation in glassy polymeric membranes. The models were solved using MATLAB codes and the sorption data were collected from available literature data. The contribution of kinetic and thermodynamic coupling effects (TCE) in the mass transport through the membrane were also studied using the Maxwell-Stefan model. Generally, kinetic coupling effects have no significant influence on the predictions of the separation performance while the thermodynamic coupling effects seem to play a great contribution in the membrane transport. According to the results, separation performance can be better estimated using Maxwell-Stefan model accounted for thermodynamic coupling effects rather than bulk flow model. The significance of considering the dependence of the fluxes of penetrants on each others, can be used for predict the best possible predictions about the separation performance for olefin/paraffin separation applications