Reverse selectivity of zeolites and metal-organic frameworks in the ethane/ethylene separation by adsorption

Major advances in the ethane/ethylene separation will be related with the discovery of adsorbents that present preferential adsorption of ethane over ethylene. Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are crystalline materials consisting of metal ions, or ion clusters, and organic ligands. Gas chromatography (GC) is most informative for materials screening for the ethane/ethylene separation since it needs only few mg of sample and gives selectivity results at various temperatures. This is illustrated by the methodology presented in this work where materials from two types of families (zeolites and MOFs) were used to show the reversed selectivity that can be found towards the ethane/ethylene separation.