Separating Hydrocarbon Mixtures by Driving the Components in Opposite Directions: High Degree of Separation Factor and Energy Efficiency

Nag, S and Ananthakrishna, G and Maiti, PK and Yashonath, S (2020) Separating Hydrocarbon Mixtures by Driving the Components in Opposite Directions: High Degree of Separation Factor and Energy Efficiency. In: Physical Review Letters, 124 (25).

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Abstract

A radically different approach for separation of molecular mixtures is proposed. A judicious combination of levitation effect observed in zeolites with a counter intuitive Landauer blow torch effect provides driving forces for the two components of the mixture to move in opposite directions. Using nonequilibrium Monte Carlo simulations, we illustrate the efficacy of the method for separating real mixtures of both linear n-pentane and its branched isomer, neopentane, and linear n-hexane and its branched isomer, 2,2-dimethylbutane. The method yields several orders of magnitude improvement in separation factor and relative energy efficiency by using submicron zeolite column. The extremely high purity of the resulting single components makes the method best suited for green chemistry. © 2020 American Physical Society.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Publication:	Physical Review Letters
Publisher:	American Physical Society
Additional Information:	Copyright for this article belongs to American Physical Society.
Keywords:	Hexane; Isomers; Mixtures; Monte Carlo methods; Paraffins; Separation; Zeolites, 2 ,2-dimethylbutane; Degree of separation; Hydrocarbon mixture; Levitation effects; Molecular mixtures; Orders of magnitude; Separation factors; Single components, Energy efficiency
Department/Centre:	Division of Chemical Sciences > Materials Research Centre Division of Chemical Sciences > Solid State & Structural Chemistry Unit Division of Physical & Mathematical Sciences > Physics
Date Deposited:	11 Nov 2021 14:01
Last Modified:	11 Nov 2021 14:01
URI:	http://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/66100

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