Novel separation process for gas mixtures

本提案旨在进一步推进清洁技术领域感兴趣的气体混合物分离的新工艺。该工艺以天然气水合物结晶为基础。我们感兴趣的气体混合物是含有二氧化碳和氢气的气体。这些气体是气化和转移反应的产物，它们的分离提供了氢（一种清洁的燃料），也用于捕获二氧化碳。另一个应用领域是烟气混合物（化石燃料燃烧的产物）。关键的技术思想是这样一个事实，当包合物水合物形成的气体混合物，如CO2/H2或CO2/N2，包合物相是富集的CO2，因此，结晶作为一个分离阶段。这个概念已经在UBC使用小（小于1l）结晶器的实验室中得到了证明。此外，这个概念已经在世界各地的其他实验室用类似规模的设备进行了验证。最近，我们在UBC开发了一种独特的基准装置，该装置由两个10l高压结晶器组成，可以在交替的水合物形成/解离模式下运行。拟议项目的目标是与工艺开发行业的专家合作，以便进行一组动力学实验，以获得有关在特定添加剂存在下形成和分解速率的时间依赖性的信息，这些添加剂可以降低工艺压力，从而降低工艺经济性（要求减少压缩）。需要考虑的添加剂有：四正丁基溴化铵（TBAB）；四正丁基氟化铵；四正丁基硝酸铵（TBANO3）。虽然使用这些添加剂降低了压力要求，但缺点是它们预计会降低过程的动力学。提出的工作将阐明添加剂对使用新的UBC装置的过程动力学的影响。这些数据将为评估分离过程的可行性以促进进一步发展提供关键资料。

This proposal aims to further advance a novel process for the separation of gas mixtures of interest in cleantechnology area. The process is based on gas hydrate crystallization. Gas mixtures of interest are thosecontaining carbon dioxide and hydrogen. These gases are products of gasification and shift reactions and theirseparation provides hydrogen (a clean fuel) and also serves to capture carbon dioxide. Another area ofapplication is in flue gas mixtures (products of the combustion of fossil fuels). The key technical idea is thefact that when clathrate hydrates form from a gas mixture such as CO2/H2 or CO2/N2 the clathrate phase isenriched with CO2 and thus, the crystallization serves as a separation stage. This concept has been proven inthe laboratory at UBC using small (less than 1 L) crystallizers. In addition the concept has been proven bysimilar scale equipment in other laboratories around the world. Recently, we have developed a unique benchscale unit at UBC that consists of two 10 L high pressure crstallizers that can operate in an alternating hydrateformation/dissociation mode. The goal of the proposed project is to engage with experts from the processdevelopment industry in order to conduct a set of kinetic experiments to obtain information about he timedependence of the formation and decomposition rates in the presence of specific additives which reduce theprocess pressure and thus the process economics (demanding less compression). The additives to be consideredare: tetra-n-butyl ammonium bromide (TBAB); tetra-n-butyl ammonium fluoride (TBAF); and tetra-n-butylammonium nitrate (TBANO3). While the use of these additives reduces the pressure requirements thedrawback is that they are expected to decrease the kinetics of the process. The proposed work will elucidate theimpact of the additives on the dynamics of the process using the new UBC apparatus. The data will providecritical information for the assessment of the feasibility of the separation process for further development.