Separation of naphtha on a series of ultramicroporous MOFs: A comparative study with zeolites

Naphtha separation is of significant importance for refineries to make full use of oil and to reduce the cost of refining. In the recent years, scientists have devoted great efforts to developing novel porous materials such as metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) for the separation of naphtha. However, previous investigations have been limited to single-component or 3- to 5-component model systems. Separation of full range hydrocarbon mixture such as naphtha has rarely been explored. In this work, we carry out a comprehensive study on the separation of alkane isomers as well as full range naphtha mixture by a series of robust microporous MOFs, e.g., Zr-abtc, Al-bttotb, Co-fa, in comparison with representative zeolite materials, e.g., ZSM-5 and zeolite 5A. We find that Al-bttotb and Co-fa, which can separate monobranched and dibranched alkanes through complete molecular exclusion, show superior separation performance for naphtha mixtures. This work may shed light on strategies for developing adsorbents with optimal performance for naphtha separation and ultimately realizing the industrialization of MOF-based separation technologies.