日本ゼオライト学会　刊行物 Publication of Japan Zeolite Association

Recently, remarkable development concerning gas separation membranes is taking place. Many successful efforts have been made to improve membrane performance both for conventional applications such as hydrogen separation, nitrogen separation and oxygen enrichment as well as for more novel separation processes including biogas upgrading (CO₂/CH₄), helium recovery and the dehydration of organic solvents. As part of these developments, zeolite is receiving increased attention as an excellent membrane material for separation processes in severe environments where conventional polymer membranes cannot be applied. In this article, we showed the potential advantages of the use of zeolite membranes in high energy-consuming petrochemical processes containing conventional distillation unit. Particularly, the membrane performance required for olefin/paraffin separation and expected energy reduction were discussed.