A carbon molecular sieve (CMS) membrane having improved separation characteristics for separating olefins from their corresponding paraffins is comprised of carbon with at most trace amounts of sulfur and a group 13 metal. The CMS membrane may be made by pyrolyzing a precursor polymer devoid of sulfur in which the precursor polymer has had a group 13 metal incorporated into it, wherein the metal is in a reduced state. The pyrolyzing for the precursor having the group 13 metal incorporated into it is performed in a nonoxidizing atmosphere and at a heating rate and temperature such that the metal in a reduced state (e.g., covalently bonded to carbon or nitrogen or in the metal state).

A method of purifying gaseous mixtures, for example ternary or quaternary gaseous mixtures, using a sorbent media comprising two or more sorbent materials. The method involves obtaining a target gas from a gaseous composition comprising the target gas, a first gas and a second gas, and optionally further gases by contacting the gaseous composition with the sorbent media to remove at least some of the first gas and at least some of the second gas from the gaseous composition. The sorbent media comprises at least a first sorbent material and a second sorbent material; wherein the first sorbent material has a higher adsorption selectivity for the first gas than for the target gas; and wherein the second sorbent material has a higher adsorption selectivity for the second gas than for target gas. The method may be particularly useful for the separation of pure ethylene, methane or propylene from such gaseous mixtures. A sorbent media and an apparatus for obtaining a target gas from such a gaseous composition are also disclosed.

Process for the conversion of non-oxidative coupling of methane to ethylene, under non-oxidative conditions, comprising: providing a first stream containing at least 50 vol. % of methane based on the total volume of said first stream; providing a catalyst; putting in contact said first stream with said catalyst at a weight hour space velocity ranging from 0.5 to 100 h.sup.−1, a temperature ranging from 500° C. to 1100° C. and a pressure ranging from 0.1 MPa to 5 Mpa in the absence of oxygen; recovering a second stream containing unconverted methane if any, ethylene and hydrocarbons having at least 2 carbon atoms. Said process is remarkable in that said catalyst is a synthetic zeolite material, containing at least one metal M with silicon to metal M molar ratio Si/M as determined by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry ranging from 100 to 65440 and in that said metal M is incorporated inside of the zeolite tetrahedral sites.

A carbon molecular sieve (CMS) membrane having improved separation characteristics for separating olefins from their corresponding paraffins is comprised of carbon with at most trace amounts of sulfur and a group 13 metal. The CMS membrane may be made by pyrolyzing a precursor polymer devoid of sulfur in which the precursor polymer has had a group 13 metal incorporated into it, wherein the metal is in a reduced state. The pyrolyzing for the precursor having the group 13 metal incorporated into it is performed in a nonoxidizing atmosphere and at a heating rate and temperature such that the metal in a reduced state (e.g., covalently bonded to carbon or nitrogen or in the metal state).

A process and system for separating paraxylene from a mixture of paraxylene, metaxylene, orthoxylene, and ethylbenzene in a simulated moving bed apparatus using a membrane to separate non-aromatics from a desorbent stream. The lower nonaromatics content in the desorbent improves paraxylene product purity, increases paraxylene production at the same desorbent rate, reduces the desorbent rate, and/or reduces energy consumption in the product tower.

An apparatus and process for distillation of methanol, which may also be used in distillation of other products, such as ethanol. The present apparatus and process have the purpose of reducing the consumption of energy and of cooling water and/or electricity in a distillation process of crude intermediate products, comprising a pre-treatment stage, known as stabilizing stage, for the removal of the volatile components, and a concentration stage, including one or more columns for distillation.

A system and a method for separating C.sub.4 and recovering 1,3-butadiene are disclosed. The system includes a main washer column, a rectifier column for separating a bottom stream from the main washer column, an after washer column for purifying 1,3-butadiene from a side stream of the rectifier column comprising acetylenes and butadienes, a degasser column for separating a bottom stream from the rectifier column to produce a lean solvent stream. The lean solvent stream comprises primarily the solvent and about 8.3% water used in the main washer column and after washer column. A reboiler for the rectifier column includes one or more heat exchange units. At least one of the heat exchange units of the reboiler for the rectifier column uses steam as heating medium.

The present disclosure provides a gas separation membrane module that has high, long-term utility. The present disclosure provides a gas separation membrane module that has: a housing; a gas separation membrane that is arranged inside the housing; and an adhesive part that fixes the gas separation membrane to the housing.

This disclosure describes energy efficient process to distill a process stream in a production facility. A process uses multiple effect evaporators, ranging from one evaporator to eight evaporators in each effect. The process arrangement shows an example of four effect evaporators, with a zero-effect evaporator having a single evaporator, a first-effect evaporator having a set of three evaporators, a second-effect evaporator having a set of three evaporators, and a third-effect evaporator having a set of evaporators to create condensed distillers solubles.

An apparatus and process for distillation of methanol which may also be used in distillation of other products, such as ethanol. The apparatus and process have the purpose of reducing the consumption of energy and of cooling water and/or electricity in a distillation process of crude intermediate products, including a pre-treatment stage, known as stabilizing stage, for the removal of the volatile components, and a concentration stage, including one or more columns for distillation.