STTR Phase I: Nanoparticle-Stabilized Vapor-Selective Membranes

这个小型企业技术转移（STTR）第一阶段项目的重点是通过添加纳米级填料来稳定蒸汽选择膜。蒸汽选择膜优先渗透气体混合物中的大分子，用于工业分离应用，如聚烯烃生产中的有机单体回收和天然气露点调节。聚二甲基硅氧烷（PDMS）是一种具有适度选择性的膜材料，通常用于这种类型的分离。已经确定了具有优越选择性的聚合物，但由于物理老化，这些材料的性能会随着时间的推移而下降。最近，我们发现添加某些纳米级填料可以稳定这些高选择性聚合物。在拟议的项目中，这种填料将被添加到高性能、蒸汽选择性聚合物中，以产生新型、稳定的纳米复合膜。所提出的膜的成功开发将允许从炼油厂流中回收氢，这些氢无法用传统技术（包括目前可用的膜）经济有效地分离。据估计，这些废气的燃烧每年给美国炼油厂造成3亿美元的损失。

This Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase I project focuses on vapor-selective membranes that are stabilized through the addition of nanoscale fillers. Vapor-selective membranes, which preferentially permeate the larger molecules in a gas mixture, are used in industrial separation applications such as organic monomer recovery in polyolefin production and natural gas dew point adjustment. Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), a membrane material with modest selectivity, is typically used in separations of this type. Polymers with superior selectivity properties have been identified, but these materials suffer performance degradation over time due to physical aging. Recently, we have discovered that the addition of certain nanoscale fillers stabilizes these highly-selective polymers. In the proposed project, such fillers will be added to high-performance, vapor-selective polymers to yield novel, stable nanocomposite membranes. Successful development of the proposed membranes would allow the recovery of hydrogen from refinery streams that cannot be cost-effectively separated with conventional technologies, including currently available membranes. Flaring of these off-gas streams results in an estimated annual loss of $300 million to U.S. refineries.