STTR Phase I: High-flux nanoporous calcium-silicate membranes for high efficiency Carbon dioxide separation

这个小企业技术转让第一阶段项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是具有成本效益的生态友好型膜，通过降低能耗和膜成本，使化石燃料发电厂和气体分离技术受益匪浅。拟议的颠覆性技术对我们的百年社会挑战之一产生了直接影响，即通过分离和捕获二氧化碳来减少温室气体排放。该项目将有助于实现新的方法来制造新的成本效益，高性能和耐用的膜，由于原材料丰富和易于制造工艺，具有广泛的适用性。从广义上讲，该项目将影响燃料电池用氢的分离和储存、水的脱盐和过滤、生物分子和放射性废物的分离等各种分离技术。该项目第一期研究的技术目标是开发一种简单但具有突破性的技术，以合成能够有效分离化石燃料发电厂产生的CO2气体分子的新型纳米多孔膜产品。核心技术依赖于耦合尺寸排阻分离机制和基于亲和力的吸附，以提供上级性能。提出的新技术将缓解当前膜技术中存在的挑战，如高温不稳定性，低通量，高成本和制造困难。最终的膜产品可用于各种能源部门和工业气体，并将提供一种低成本的解决方案，与现有技术相比，更节能，更耐用，并表现出卓越的CO2选择性。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Technology Transfer Phase I project is cost-effective, eco-friendly membranes that significantly benefit fossil-fuel power plants and gas separation technologies by reducing energy consumption and membrane cost. The proposed disruptive technology has a direct impact on one of our key centennial societal challenges, i.e. reducing greenhouse gas emissions by separating and capturing carbon dioxide. This project will help enable new approaches for manufacturing new cost-effective, high performance, and durable membranes with wide applicability due to the abundance of the raw materials and ease of manufacturing processes. Broadly, the project can impact various separation technologies such as separation and storage of hydrogen for fuel cells, water desalination and filtration, and separation of biomolecules and radioactive waste.The technical objective in this Phase I research project is developing a facile but disruptive technology to synthesize novel nanoporous membrane products capable of efficient separation of CO2 gas molecules from fossil-fuel power plants. The core technology relies on coupling size-exclusion separation mechanisms and affinity-based adsorption to provide superior performance. The proposed novel technology will mitigate the existing challenges in current membrane technologies such as high-temperature instability, low-flux, high-cost, and manufacturing difficulties. The final membrane product can be employed by various energy sectors and industrial gases and will provide a low-cost solution that is more energy-efficient, durable, and demonstrates exceptional CO2 selectivity, as compared to existing technologies.