SBIR Phase I: Fluorocarbon Production with Germanium tetrafluoride

这项小企业创新研究第一阶段项目将研究使用四氟化锗（GeF4）和锑Sb(V)作为GeF4氟化的催化剂，以开发一种生产氢氟碳化物（HFC）制冷剂的更有效的新工艺。使用GeF4进行氯碳氟化的尝试没有成功。然而，人们认为这些实验失败的原因是他们使用了未催化的GeF4。一些制造商已经开始投资新的氢氟烃制造能力。使用氯氟烃（CFC）和氢氯氟烃（HCFC）作为制冷剂是一个价值280亿美元的产业。对HCFC和CFC的环境担忧导致要求到2030年完全淘汰这些消耗臭氧的产品，并逐步使用HFC来取代它们。从该项目中获得的结果将有助于确定利用这一创新的最有希望的商业机会，并确定该工艺在大批量生产中的应用效果。

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project shall investigate the use of germanium tetrafluoride (GeF4), and antimony Sb(V) as a catalyst for GeF4 fluorination to develop a new and more efficient process for the production of hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) refrigerants. There have been unsuccessful attempts to use GeF4 for fluorination of chlorocarbons. However, it is believed that those experiments failed because they used uncatalyzed GeF4. Several manufactures have already begun investing in new HFC manufacturing capability. Use of Chlorofluorocarobons (CFC's) and hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFC's) as refrigerants is a $28 billion dollar industry. Environmental concerns with HCFC and CFC has led to requirements that those ozone depleting products be completely eliminated by 2030 and HFC's gradually phased in to replace them. The results obtained from this project will help to identify the most promising commercial opportunities to exploit from this innovation and determine how useful the process would be for application in high volume production.