PFI-RP: Advanced Membrane-Contact Reactor for Fuel Alcohol Productions from Distributed Resources

这一创新-研究伙伴关系项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力是一种高效的小规模气液转化技术，可用于分布式废弃生物质和“搁浅气体”资源。将作为废物排放的“有害”或有毒气体转化为有价值的液体目前在市场上不可得。如今，在原油生产过程中产生的大部分天然气，也被称为“伴生气”，都必须进行燃烧。燃烧过程破坏了这一潜在的重要能源，同时导致温室气体排放和增加公众健康问题。以生产液体燃料/化学品为目标的生物质气化提供了有效利用这种丰富且易于获得的可再生能源的机会。目前缺乏先进的小规模转化技术已成为生物质持续利用的瓶颈。开发一个小型和有利可图的气体转化装置也提供了一个机会，生产甲醇和其他增值化学品的替代和可再生资源。拟议的项目旨在开发一个高效的甲醇生产工艺，从合成气采用吹扫液体促进膜接触反应器（MCR）系统，其中反应热和所产生的甲醇都被删除原位。 该过程可导致克服固有平衡限制的更高的单向转化率。由于具有优异的热管理特征和增强的单程转化率，所提出的方法可以不需要未反应的合成气的能量需求和技术复杂的再循环步骤，使得其有利于分布式生物质和未开发的天然气资源的利用。MCR系统的使用避免了扫掠溶剂与催化剂的直接接触，克服了与竞争性反应分离工艺的工业应用相关的关键挑战。此外，该系统的MCR配置（相当于“管壳式”热交换器反应器）允许通过溶剂吹扫从反应器环境中有效去除热量。这种基于MCR的甲醇生产工艺可能有潜力将GTL技术的应用扩展到越来越多的分布式应用中。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估来支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Partnership for Innovation – Research Partnership (PFI-RP) project is an efficient small-scale gas-to-liquid (GTL) conversion technology for use with distributed waste biomass and “stranded gas” resources. The conversion of "nuisance" or noxious gases emitted as waste to valuable liquids is not presently available in the marketplace. Today, most of the natural gas produced during the production of crude oil, also known as “associated gas”, has to be flared. The flaring process destroys this potentially important energy resource, while contributing to greenhouse gas emissions and increasing public health concerns. Gasification of biomass with the goal of producing liquid fuels/chemicals offers an opportunity for effective utilization of this abundant and readily available renewable energy resource. The current lack of advanced small-scale conversion technology has become a bottleneck to continuous biomass utilization. Developing a small and profitable gas conversion unit also offers an opportunity to produce methanol and other value-added chemicals from alternative and renewable resources.The proposed project seeks to develop a highly-efficient methanol production process from synthetic gas by employing a sweep liquid-facilitated membrane contact reactor (MCR) system in which both the reaction heat and the produced methanol are removed in situ. This process may lead to a higher one-path conversion rate that overcomes inherent equilibrium limitations. With excellent heat management features and enhanced single-pass conversion rate, the proposed process may not require the energy-demanding and technically-complex recycle step of un-reacted syngas, making it beneficial for the utilization of distributed biomass and untapped natural gas resources. The use of the MCR system avoids the direct contact of the sweep solvents with catalysts, overcoming a key challenge related to industrial applications of competitive reactive separation processes. In addition, the MCR configuration of the system, which is equivalent to a “tube-and-shell” heat exchanger reactor, allows for the effective removal of heat from the reactor environment via the solvent sweep. Such a MCR-based methanol production process may have potential for expanding the application of GTL technology to a growing class of distributed-type applications.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.