New Product Stream Opportunities

The Permylene membrane transports olefins via a facilitated transport mechanism that employs a specific chemical interaction between the olefin double bond and the materials of the membrane and not by volatility differences.

This transport of olefins takes place equally well when the relative volatility of the mixture is 1 as it does at any other level. Some olefin-paraffin separations that would yield commercially useful materials are not practical or possible for distillation but are not a problem for a Permylene membrane system. An example is obtaining nearly pure 2-butene from a 2-butene/n-butane mixture for use as a metathesis or OCT (olefins conversion technology) feedstock. This separation cannot be done by distillation but Permylene membrane systems can achieve it easily.