SBIR Phase I: New Low-Cost Approaches to Energy-Efficient Enriched Oxygen From Air Using Unique High-Permeability Membranes

该小型企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目的重点是商业化一种新的气体分离产品，该产品将使用低压环境温度空气将其氧含量从20%提高到30%。通过使用一种新的塑料来分离空气的成分，这种方法将比传统的低温方法便宜50%，效率更高。富氧空气的使用将在美国节省高达70%的天然气燃料，这取决于燃烧器温度，并将允许现有的空气燃料炉经济地转换为富氧炉。美国电力和制造业天然气燃烧效率的显著提高将有助于提高美国工业利用丰富的北美天然气减少石油进口的能力。此外，由于这些膜系统的小尺寸，它们也可以应用于使用天然气的家庭供暖系统。 据估计，美国富氧空气的公用事业、玻璃和金属加热市场的潜力超过80亿美元。我们的研究项目将专注于通过合成可申请专利的新分子结构，在商业场所建造和测试原型分离装置来提高塑料膜的过滤能力。该项目更广泛的影响/商业潜力来自于这样一个事实，即用于燃烧过程的天然气目前为美国社会提供了美国使用的所有一次能源的五分之一以上。富氧空气可以节省高达70%的天然气用于广泛的工业燃烧，同时提高二氧化碳封存的潜力。这项技术的成功商业化将大大提高美国的能源效率，因为它也可以应用于家庭供暖效率以及工业煤和石油燃烧。在膜分离这一活跃的领域，将加强科学技术知识的提高。 通过膜，聚合物结构/气体溶解度，以及在工业操作条件下的聚合物材料的性能的气体传输的知识和理解将被推进。气体处理的新设计对系统工程师也很有价值。

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR)Phase I project is focused on commercializing a new gas separation product that will use ambient temperature air at low pressures to enrich it's oxygen content from 20% to 30%. By using a new plastic that separates the components of air, this process will be 50% cheaper and more efficient than conventional cryogenic methods. The use of oxygen-enriched air will save natural gas fuel in the US by as much as 70% depending upon burner temperatures and will allow existing air-fueled furnaces to be converted economically to oxygen-enriched furnaces. The impact of significantly improving natural gas combustion efficiency throughout U.S. electric power and manufacturing industries would serve to increase the ability of US industry to lower imports of oil by using plentiful North American natural gas. In addition, due to the small size of these membrane systems they could also be applied to home heating systems using natural gas. The potential U.S. utility, glass, and metal heating market for oxygen-enriched air is estimated at over $8 billion. Our research project will focus on improving the filtration ability of the plastic membrane by synthesizing patentable new molecular architectures, building and testing prototype separation units at commercial locations. The broader impact/commercial potential of this project comes from the fact that natural gas for combustion processes currently provides US society with more than one-fifth of all primary energy used in the United States. Oxygen enriched air could save up to 70% of this natural gas used for a wide range of industrial combustion while improving the potential for sequestration of CO2. Successful commercialization of this technology will significantly improve US energy efficiency since it could also be applied to home heating efficiency as well as industrial coal and oil combustion. Scientific and technical knowledge enhancement will be enhanced in the active field of membrane separations. Knowledge and understanding of gas transport through membranes, polymer structure/gas solubilities, and performance of polymer materials under industrial operational conditions will be advanced. New designs for gas processing also will be valuable to system engineers.