SBIR Phase I: Fluorocarbon Production with Germanium tetrafluoride

这个小型企业创新研究第一阶段项目将调查使用四氟化锗(GeF4)和Sb(V)作为GeF4氟化的催化剂，以开发一种生产氢氟烃(HFC)制冷剂的新的、更有效的工艺。已有使用GeF4进行氯碳氟化的尝试，但未获成功。然而，人们认为这些实验之所以失败，是因为他们使用了非催化的GeF4。几家制造商已经开始投资建设新的HFC制造能力。使用氯氟化碳和氢氯氟化碳作为制冷剂是一个价值280亿美元的行业。对氟氯烃和氯氟化碳的环境担忧导致要求到2030年完全消除这些消耗臭氧层的产品，并逐步淘汰氢氟碳化物来取代它们。从该项目获得的结果将有助于确定从这项创新中开发的最有希望的商业机会，并确定该工艺对大批量生产的应用有多大用处。

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project shall investigate the use of germanium tetrafluoride (GeF4), and antimony Sb(V) as a catalyst for GeF4 fluorination to develop a new and more efficient process for the production of hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) refrigerants. There have been unsuccessful attempts to use GeF4 for fluorination of chlorocarbons. However, it is believed that those experiments failed because they used uncatalyzed GeF4. Several manufactures have already begun investing in new HFC manufacturing capability. Use of Chlorofluorocarobons (CFC's) and hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFC's) as refrigerants is a $28 billion dollar industry. Environmental concerns with HCFC and CFC has led to requirements that those ozone depleting products be completely eliminated by 2030 and HFC's gradually phased in to replace them. The results obtained from this project will help to identify the most promising commercial opportunities to exploit from this innovation and determine how useful the process would be for application in high volume production.