Hydrocarbon separations by glassy polymer membranes

Polymers are unarguably the most broadly used membrane materials for molecular separations and beyond. Motivated by the commercial success of membrane-based desalination and permanent gas separations, glassy polymer membranes are increasingly being studied for hydrocarbon separations. They represent a class of challenging yet economically impactful bulk separations extensively practiced in the refining and petrochemical industry. This review discusses recent developments in membrane-based hydrocarbon separations using glassy polymer membranes relying on the sorption-diffusion mechanism. Hydrocarbon separations by both diffusion-selective and sorption-selective glassy polymer membranes are considered. Opinions on the likelihoods of large-scale implementation are provided for selected hydrocarbon pairs. Finally, a discussion of the challenges and outlook of glassy polymer membrane-based hydrocarbon separations is presented.