Non-methane hydrocarbons(NMHCs) are a common type of volatile organic compounds(VOCs) pollutant in the petrochemical industry and have attracted widespread attention because of their adverse health effects and environmental impacts. In this paper, we report a new porous slurry formed with zeolitic imidazolate framework-8(ZIF-8) and iso-hexadecane to capture the low-concentration and multi-component NMHCs(mainly ethane(C2H6), propane(C3H8), and n-butane(n-C4H10)) from the oil field exhaust. The sorption capacity of C2H6in the slurry is significantly higher than that of nitrogen(N2) and methane(CH4). Moreover, the slurry demonstrated a clear advantage for C2H6over N2and CH4in competitive adsorption through the pressure-drop curves. In the NMHCs capture experiments, the C3H8and n-C4H10concentrations after purification can be reduced to below 100 ppm, while the C2H6concentration can reach approximately 180 ppm. More encouragingly, in the breakthrough tests, the slurry exhibits a perfect kinetic separation selectivity for multi-component NMHCs. Furthermore, to avoid structural collapse of ZIF-8 material during long-term use in acidic and wet environments, a certain amount of 2-methylimidazole was retained in the slurry as a protective agent in the material synthesis process. In this way, the ZIF-8 materials in the slurry can retain the stable characteristic structure in an aqueous and acidic environment and keep the capture capacity for NMHCs without degradation. We believe the porous ZIF-8/iso-hexadecane slurry is a promising capture agent for low-concentration and multi-component NMHCs with strong purification capacity and stability.
