SBIR Phase II: Novel Facilitated Transport Membranes for Olefin Separations

这个小型企业创新研究(SBIR)第二阶段项目的重点是烯烃/烷烃分离。在美国，乙烯和丙烯的产量比其他任何有机化学品都大。目前，烯烃/烷烃的分离是通过蒸馏进行的，这是一个非常耗能的过程，因为它们的相对挥发度很低。对于这些分离，聚合物膜的选择性是不够的，但促进传输膜的选择性更高。然而，膜的不稳定性、低气体通量和所需的水饱和进料限制了它们的工业应用。为了克服这些问题，人们正在开发一种新型的促进传输膜。该膜具有较高的气体通量，与传统的促进传输膜相比，显著提高了烯烃/烷烃的选择性，在干料下运行，并稳定了几周。该项目的商业应用将是膜，它将显著降低工业烯烃/烷烃分离的成本和能源消耗。其他应用包括聚乙烯/聚丙烯、异丙苯、异丙醇和丙烯腈装置中的副产品/排气气流。随后的应用是从催化裂化装置尾气和大型工艺(丙烷脱氢和蒸汽裂解)中回收丙烯。

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project focuses on olefin/paraffin separations. In the USA, ethylene and propylene are produced in larger quantities than any other organic chemical. Currently, olefin/paraffin separation is done by distillation, an extremely energy-intensive process because of their low relative volatility. Selectivities of polymeric membranes are inadequate for these separations, but selectivities of facilitated transport membranes are higher. However, membrane instability, low gas fluxes, and a required water-saturated feed limit their industrial application. To overcome these problems a new type of facilitated transport membrane is being developed. The membrane has high gas fluxes, dramatically improved olefin/paraffin selectivities over conventional facilitated transport membranes, operates with a dry feed, and is stable for several weeks. The commercial applications from this project will be membranes that will significantly lower cost and energy consumption of industrial olefin/paraffin separations. Other applications include by product/vent gas streams in polyethylene/polypropylene, cumene, isopropanol and acrylonitrile plants. Subsequent applications are propylene recovery from FCCU off-gas and from large processes (propane dehydrogenation and steam crackers).