SBIR Phase I: Nanocomposite Membranes for Solvent-Resistant Nanofiltration and Reverse Osmosis

这个小型企业创新研究(SBIR)第一阶段项目旨在开发一种可扩展的工艺，用于生产高选择性、耐溶剂的纳滤膜(SRNF)。虽然有许多纳滤膜用于水体系，但很少有这样的膜可用于有机溶剂中的过滤。该方案的目的是制备一种具有更高的有机溶剂通量和选择性的耐溶剂纳米复合膜，并在实际测试条件下展示这种膜的稳定性能。可扩展的膜合成方法将被开发出来，预计这类膜的渗透性将比目前的耐溶剂膜提高两倍。这项研究的更广泛/商业影响是节省数千太瓦时的能源，避免数十亿吨二氧化碳排放，同时减少消耗和排放到环境中的溶剂的体积，在许多情况下提高最终产品的质量。大量的溶剂被用于生产和精炼产品，这些产品涉及美国最大的行业，包括石油精炼、生物燃料和生化生产、化学合成、制药和食用油等食品的生产。由于不存在足够强大和高效的膜技术，目前绝大多数的溶剂分离都是通过能量密集型的热蒸馏技术实现的。膜和节能的潜在市场价值每年至少为50亿美元。

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project aims to develop a scalable process for producing a highly selective, solvent-resistant nanofiltration membrane (SRNF). While numerous nanofiltration membranes exist for use in aqueous systems, few such membranes are available for filtration in organic solvents. The objectives of this proposal are to fabricate a solvent-resistant nanocomposite membrane with enhanced organic solvent flux and selectivity, and to demonstrate the stable performance of such a membrane under realistic testing conditions. Scalable methods of membrane synthesis will be developed, and it is anticipated that such membranes will have a factor of two improvement in permeability relative to current solvent-resistant membranes.The broader/commercial impacts of this research are thousands of TWh of energy saved, avoiding billions of tons of CO2 emissions, while simultaneously reducing the volume of solvents consumed and discharged into the environment and in many cases improving the quality of end products. Huge volumes of solvents are used in the production and refining of products spanning the nation's largest industries including petroleum refining, biofuel and biochemical production, chemical synthesis, pharmaceutical manufacturing and production of foods such as edible oils. The vast majority of solvent separations are today implemented by energy intensive thermal distillation techniques because sufficiently robust and high performing membrane technology does not exist. The potential market value of membranes and energy savings is at least $5B annually.