STTR Phase I: New Perfluorodioxolane- and Perfluorodioxane-based Copolymer Membranes for Gas Separations

小型企业技术转移计划第一阶段项目的广泛影响/商业潜力可能导致使用膜技术的天然气加工经济性的显著改善。天然气处理是最大的工业气体分离应用，天然气分离设备目前代表着每年约30-50亿美元的市场。由于目前占主导地位的胺系统的高能源强度和环境问题，气体加工商正在寻找替代分离方案。膜技术具有清洁、简单、高效等优点。然而，现有膜的分离性能不足，阻碍了清洁膜技术的推广应用。如果开发成功，该项目将开发的新型全氟聚合物复合膜将加强膜技术在天然气处理市场的竞争地位，使用户能够获得膜所提供的加工简便性和环境优势。如果达到气体选择性和渗透率目标，可以显著降低运营成本(高达30%)和资本成本(高达40%)。相应的天然气处理成本也将下降约35%。该技术有可能推广到其他领域，如H2/CH4、He/CH4和烯烃/石蜡的分离。这一阶段的研究项目的目标是优化合成新的全氟二氧戊烷共聚物，并将这些材料制备成坚固的复合膜，其气体分离性能优于商业上可用的膜。在纽约大学最近的合成工作的基础上，将制备一系列全氟二氧戊烷共聚物，以研究结构/性能关系。将对聚合反应进行优化，以获得具有优化的气体分离性能、合理的低成本、优异的化学和热稳定性、良好的成膜性和溶剂加工性的目标共聚物。得到的共聚物将被制造成薄膜复合膜，并在MTR用工业相关混合物进行测试。在第一阶段项目结束时，将在第二阶段计划中选择最有希望的共聚物进行放大和商业化。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Technology Transfer Program Phase I project could lead to a dramatic improvement in natural gas processing economics using membrane technology. Natural gas processing is the largest industrial gas separation application, and natural gas separation equipment currently represents a market of approximately $3-5 billion per year. Due to high energy intensity and environmental concerns with currently dominant amine systems, gas processors are seeking alternative separation options. Membrane technology offers many advantages including clean, simple, and efficient operation. However, expanded use of clean membrane technology has been hindered by insufficient separation performance of existing membranes. If successfully developed, the new perfluoro polymeric composite membranes to be developed in this project will strengthen the competitive position of membrane technology in the natural gas treatment market, allowing users to capture the ease of processing and environmental advantages offered by membranes. If gas selectivity and permeance targets are met, significant reductions in the operating cost (up to 30%) and in the capital cost (up to 40%) can be achieved. Corresponding gas processing costs would also drop about 35%. The proposed technology can potentially be extended to other applications such as H2/CH4, He/CH4, and olefin/paraffin separations.The objectives of this Phase I research project are to optimize synthesis of new perfluoro dioxolane copolymers and to fabricate these materials into robust composite membranes, whose gas separation performance is superior to commercially available membranes. Building on recent synthesis work at NYU, a series of perfluoro dioxolane copolymers will be prepared to study structure/property relationships. Optimization of the polymerization reaction will be carried out to obtain the targeted copolymers with optimized gas separation performance, reasonably low cost, excellent chemical and thermal stability, good film-forming properties and solvent-processability. The resulting copolymers will be fabricated into thin-film composite membranes and tested with industrially relevant mixtures at MTR. At the end of the Phase I project, the most promising copolymer will be selected for scale up and commercialization in a Phase II program.