Chinese researchers develop new method of propylene production

GUANGZHOU, July 24 (Xinhua) -- Chinese researchers have developed a new method of sieving propylene from propane, promising to improve the efficiency of propylene production.

With an annual output of more than 100 million tons, propylene is a basic organic chemical raw material with one of the highest outputs in the world.

However, the traditional industrial technology of sieving propylene from propane usually comes at a cost of high investment in equipment and huge energy consumption.

Researchers at Jinan University developed a new method using orthogonal-array dynamic molecular sieving, which is energy-saving and will greatly improve production efficiency.

The study will hopefully be widely used in petrochemical industry, epidemic prevention and control, health care and other fields, said Li Dan of Jinan University, one of the researchers.

The study was recently published in the journal Nature.