SBIR Phase II: Novel Zeolite Membranes for Olefin/Paraffin Separation

SBIR 第二阶段：用于烯烃/石蜡分离的新型沸石膜

• 批准号: 1430552
• 负责人: Zhong Tang
• 金额: $ 63.59万
• 依托单位: Bettergy Corp.
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2014-10-01 至 2017-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1430552&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: SBIR; Phase; II; Novel; Zeolite

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research Phase II project, if successful, could facilitate significant energy and cost savings for olefin manufacturing facilities. In the US, ethylene and propylene are the most commonly produced light olefins with annual production exceeding 25 million tons for ethylene and 16 million tons for propylene. It is estimated that over 120 trillion Btu of energy per year is consumed by the current distillation processes for the separation of ethylene/ethane and propylene/propane mixtures in the United States alone. The proposed work could lead to the development of novel membrane separation technology with the potential for significant energy and cost savings in the production of commodity chemicals such as ethylene and propylene. There is strong commercial market interest in technology that facilitates cost-effective olefin/paraffin separation compared to incumbent technologies.This Small Business Innovation Research Phase II project aims to develop and commercialize a robust, cost-effective, olefin/paraffin membrane separation technology with high permeability and selectivity, as well as excellent operating stability. Bettergy has shown in the Phase I program that their unique composite membrane can separate propylene/propane gas mixture with propylene/propane selectivity of ~ 120, and propylene permeance up to 1.5×10-8 mol/m2.s.Pa. More importantly, the membrane has demonstrated over 1500 hours of stable operation. In the Phase II program, the major focus will be placed on membrane optimization, scale-up process development and commercialization. Once fully developed, this membrane technology could be an attractive alternative to the highly energy-intensive cryogenic distillation process currently used.

这个小企业创新研究第二阶段项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力，如果成功，可以为烯烃生产设施节省大量能源和成本。在美国，乙烯和丙烯是最常生产的轻烯烃，乙烯年产量超过2500万吨，丙烯年产量超过1600万吨。据估计，仅在美国，目前用于分离乙烯/乙烷和丙烯/丙烷混合物的蒸馏过程每年就消耗超过120万亿英热单位的能源。这项工作可能会导致新型膜分离技术的发展，在乙烯和丙烯等商品化学品的生产中具有显著的能源和成本节约潜力。与现有技术相比，具有成本效益的烯烃/石蜡分离技术具有强烈的商业市场兴趣。该小型企业创新研究二期项目旨在开发一种强大、经济、高渗透、高选择性、操作稳定性好的烯烃/石蜡膜分离技术并将其商业化。Bettergy在一期项目中表明，他们独特的复合膜可以分离丙烯/丙烷气体混合物，丙烯/丙烷选择性为~ 120，丙烯渗透率高达1.5×10-8 mol/m2.s.Pa。更重要的是，该膜已经证明了超过1500小时的稳定运行。在二期项目中，主要重点将放在膜优化、规模化工艺开发和商业化上。一旦完全开发，这种膜技术可能是目前使用的高能耗低温蒸馏工艺的一个有吸引力的替代方案。