NOVEL APPLICATION OF MEMBRANE CONTACTORS - SOLUBILITY MEASUREMENTS OF1-HEXENE IN SOLVENTS CONTAINING SILVER IONS FOR LIQUID OLEFIN PARAFFIN SEPARATIONS/

A new method for measuring the solubility of liquid olefins in solvent s containing silver ions has been proposed and tested. The method incl udes the use of a stationary membrane contactor containing PDMS-based polymeric membranes. Silver-ion-free solvents that have been selected for experiments (e.g., ethylene glycol and 1,3-propanediol) and which are essentially immiscible with olefins are able to dissolve silver ni trate, making it possible for them to absorb olefins due to reversible complexation of silver ions with unsaturated olefinic double bonds. T he use of polymeric membranes between the two liquid phases (e.g., ole fins and solvents) simplifies the solubility measurement procedure sin ce membranes act as a semipermeable barrier between olefins and solven ts. In this study the enthalpy (Delta H-0) for the complex formation r eaction between 1-hexene and silver nitrate in ethylene glycol and 1,3 -propanediol was estimated. It was shown that 1,3-propanediol containi ng silver nitrate has greater sorption capacity for 1-hexene than ethy lene glycol.