STTR Phase I: New Perfluorodioxolane- and Perfluorodioxane-based Copolymer Membranes for Gas Separations

STTR 第一阶段：用于气体分离的新型全氟二氧戊环和全氟二氧六环共聚物膜

• 批准号: 1449053
• 负责人: Zhenjie He
• 金额: $ 22.5万
• 依托单位: MEMBRANE TECHNOLOGY & RESEARCH, INC.
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-01-01 至 2015-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1449053&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: STTR; Phase; New; Perfluorodioxolane; Perfluorodioxane

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Technology Transfer Program Phase I project could lead to a dramatic improvement in natural gas processing economics using membrane technology. Natural gas processing is the largest industrial gas separation application, and natural gas separation equipment currently represents a market of approximately $3-5 billion per year. Due to high energy intensity and environmental concerns with currently dominant amine systems, gas processors are seeking alternative separation options. Membrane technology offers many advantages including clean, simple, and efficient operation. However, expanded use of clean membrane technology has been hindered by insufficient separation performance of existing membranes. If successfully developed, the new perfluoro polymeric composite membranes to be developed in this project will strengthen the competitive position of membrane technology in the natural gas treatment market, allowing users to capture the ease of processing and environmental advantages offered by membranes. If gas selectivity and permeance targets are met, significant reductions in the operating cost (up to 30%) and in the capital cost (up to 40%) can be achieved. Corresponding gas processing costs would also drop about 35%. The proposed technology can potentially be extended to other applications such as H2/CH4, He/CH4, and olefin/paraffin separations.The objectives of this Phase I research project are to optimize synthesis of new perfluoro dioxolane copolymers and to fabricate these materials into robust composite membranes, whose gas separation performance is superior to commercially available membranes. Building on recent synthesis work at NYU, a series of perfluoro dioxolane copolymers will be prepared to study structure/property relationships. Optimization of the polymerization reaction will be carried out to obtain the targeted copolymers with optimized gas separation performance, reasonably low cost, excellent chemical and thermal stability, good film-forming properties and solvent-processability. The resulting copolymers will be fabricated into thin-film composite membranes and tested with industrially relevant mixtures at MTR. At the end of the Phase I project, the most promising copolymer will be selected for scale up and commercialization in a Phase II program.

该小企业技术转让计划第一阶段项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力可能会导致使用膜技术的天然气加工经济性的显着改善。天然气加工是最大的工业气体分离应用，天然气分离设备目前代表着每年约30 - 50亿美元的市场。由于目前占主导地位的胺系统的高能量强度和环境问题，气体处理器正在寻求替代的分离选择。 膜技术提供了许多优点，包括清洁，简单和有效的操作。然而，现有膜的分离性能不足阻碍了清洁膜技术的扩展使用。如果成功开发，该项目将开发的新型全氟聚合物复合膜将加强膜技术在天然气处理市场的竞争地位，使用户能够获得膜所提供的易加工性和环境优势。如果满足气体选择性和渗透率目标，则可以实现操作成本（高达30%）和资本成本（高达40%）的显著降低。相应的天然气加工成本也将下降约35%。该技术可以扩展到其他应用，如H2/CH 4，He/CH 4，烯烃/石蜡分离。本阶段研究项目的目标是优化合成新的全氟二氧戊环共聚物，并将这些材料制成坚固的复合膜，其气体分离性能是上级的市售膜。基于纽约大学最近的合成工作，将制备一系列全氟二氧戊环共聚物以研究结构/性能关系。将进行聚合反应的优化以获得具有优化的气体分离性能、合理的低成本、优异的化学和热稳定性、良好的成膜性能和溶剂可加工性的目标共聚物。所得共聚物将制成薄膜复合膜，并在MTR用工业相关混合物进行测试。在第一阶段项目结束时，将选择最有前途的共聚物在第二阶段计划中进行规模扩大和商业化。