Advanced Polymer Membranes for Gas Separations Relevant to Shale Gas Processing

The availability of large amounts of shale gas has stimulated the search for processes that could upgrade these light hydrocarbon resources to potentially more valuable chemicals and fuels. Novel processes will demand advances in catalysis and separations. Membranes may well play a significant role in separations associated with shale gas conversion. This presentation will outline a potentially new approach, based upon the CISTAR process, for conversion of C₂ and C₃ alkane hydrocarbons to olefin analogs useful for further processing into, for example, chemicals. Separations of interest for this application include H₂ removal from mixtures of olefins and paraffins as well as olefin/paraffin separation. Based upon process considerations, some of these separations may be more efficiently performed at temperatures substantially above ambient. Recent results on thermally stable membrane materials, including those employing ionic liquids to assist in separation properties, will be discussed, as well as potential new directions for materials research in this space.