STTR Phase I: Nanoparticle-Stabilized Vapor-Selective Membranes

这个小企业技术转让（STTR）第一阶段项目的重点是通过添加纳米级填料稳定的蒸汽选择性膜。优先渗透气体混合物中较大分子的蒸气选择性膜用于工业分离应用，例如聚烯烃生产中的有机单体回收和天然气露点调节。聚二甲基硅氧烷（PDMS）是一种具有中等选择性的膜材料，通常用于此类分离。已经鉴定出具有上级选择性性质的聚合物，但是这些材料由于物理老化而随着时间的推移遭受性能退化。最近，我们发现添加某些纳米级填料可以稳定这些高选择性聚合物。在拟议的项目中，这种填料将被添加到高性能，蒸汽选择性聚合物，以产生新的，稳定的纳米复合膜。成功开发拟议的膜将允许从炼油厂物流中回收氢气，这些物流不能用传统技术（包括目前可用的膜）进行成本效益高的分离。这些废气流的燃烧导致美国炼油厂估计每年损失3亿美元。

This Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase I project focuses on vapor-selective membranes that are stabilized through the addition of nanoscale fillers. Vapor-selective membranes, which preferentially permeate the larger molecules in a gas mixture, are used in industrial separation applications such as organic monomer recovery in polyolefin production and natural gas dew point adjustment. Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), a membrane material with modest selectivity, is typically used in separations of this type. Polymers with superior selectivity properties have been identified, but these materials suffer performance degradation over time due to physical aging. Recently, we have discovered that the addition of certain nanoscale fillers stabilizes these highly-selective polymers. In the proposed project, such fillers will be added to high-performance, vapor-selective polymers to yield novel, stable nanocomposite membranes. Successful development of the proposed membranes would allow the recovery of hydrogen from refinery streams that cannot be cost-effectively separated with conventional technologies, including currently available membranes. Flaring of these off-gas streams results in an estimated annual loss of $300 million to U.S. refineries.