Purification of natural gas and separation of methanol-to-olefins (MTO) products are essential yet energy-intensive processes in petrochemical industry. Adsorption separation utilizing porous materials is regarded as an energy-efficient alternative to traditional distillation method for hydrocarbon separation. In this work, we presented a comprehensive investigation of an ultramicroporous MOF (PCP-TPDA), which features multiple supramolecular binding sites for the separate natural gas and MTO products. The single-component gas adsorption results indicate that PCP-TPDA can preferentially trap larger size alkane molecules than CH4 and separate effectively C3H6 from C2H4. Furthermore, breakthrough experiments validated the actual feasibility of purifying natural gas and MTO products over PCP-TPDA. Additionally, computational simulations revealed the pivotal roles of narrow channels and multiple supramolecular binding sites for separation performance.

中文翻译：

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具有多个超分子结合位点的超微孔金属有机框架，用于高效分离天然气和 MTO 产物


天然气净化和甲醇制烯烃 （MTO） 产品的分离是石化行业必不可少但能源密集型的工艺。利用多孔材料的吸附分离被认为是传统碳氢化合物分离蒸馏方法的节能替代方案。在这项工作中，我们提出了对超微孔 MOF （PCP-TPDA） 的全面研究，它具有多个超分子结合位点，用于单独的天然气和 MTO 产物。单组分气体吸附结果表明，PCP-TPDA 可以优先捕获比 CH4 更大尺寸的烷烃分子，并有效地分离 C3H6 和 C2H4。此外，突破性实验验证了通过 PCP-TPDA 净化天然气和 MTO 产品的实际可行性。此外，计算模拟揭示了窄通道和多个超分子结合位点对分离性能的关键作用。