SBIR Phase II: Robust Nanofiltration to Enable Challenging Chemical and Pharmaceutical Separations

该SBIR第二阶段项目的重点是提高用于新型膜材料的高价值纳米材料的国内制造能力。此前，该公司已开发出一种新型膜材料，在工业过程应用中具有相当大的经济、环境和营养影响。可商购获得的纳米过滤（NF）膜系统采用聚合物膜，其具有固有的化学和热耐受性，因此难以清洁或不能用于所有分离流。与此同时，美国12%的能源消耗用于热分离，这一数字可以通过适当的物理分离技术减少10倍。该技术的应用领域包括食品饮料加工、制药生产、半导体制造和化学/石化精炼。在大面积（数十平方米）上创建纳米级特征将为多种产品和应用提供技术机会。在这个SBIR第二阶段项目中，该公司正在进行工艺开发，中试示范，并加大努力，为纳滤膜分离应用涂覆氧化石墨烯薄膜。今天吗？纳米过滤膜的选择性和耐久性限制了膜过程。材料平台的选择性和操作条件得到改善，可改善下游工艺和新产品开发。该技术可耐受高温、极端pH值、有机和氯化溶剂以及高水平的氧化剂。从热分离过渡到膜分离可节省90%的所需能源。同时，投资回收期为3个月时，改善清洁的地方（CIP）协议，为现有的NF工艺。这是分离行业的游戏规则改变者。感兴趣的关键分离包括乳清、乳清浓缩、糖分级、脂肪酸分离、营养品提取、药物纯化和黑液浓缩。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This SBIR Phase II project focuses on advancing the domestic manufacturing capabilities for high-value nanomaterials for new membrane materials. Previously, the company has developed a novel membrane material with considerable economic, environmental, and nutritional impact in industrial process applications. Commercially available nanofiltration (NF) membrane systems employ polymer membranes, which have inherent chemical and thermal intolerance and are therefore difficult to clean or cannot be used in all separation streams. Meanwhile, 12% of US energy consumption is dedicated to thermal separations, a number that can be cut by a factor of 10 with appropriate physical separation technologies. This technology has applications across food & beverage processing, pharmaceutical production, semiconductor manufacturing, and chemical/petrochemical refining.Creating nanometer-scale features on large areas (tens of square meters) will enable technical opportunities for a multitude of products and applications. In this SBIR Phase II project, the company is conducting process development, pilot demonstration, and scale up efforts toward coating graphene oxide thin films for nanofiltration membrane separations applications. Today?s membrane processes are limited by the selectivity and durability of the nanofiltration membrane. Improved selectivity and operational conditions from the material platform enables improved downstream processes, and new product development. The technology is tolerant to elevated temperatures, extreme pH, organic and chlorinated solvents, and high levels of oxidizers. Transitioning from thermal separations to membrane separations saves 90% of the required energy. Meanwhile, payback time is 3 months when improving clean-in-place (CIP) protocol for existing NF processes. This is a game changer for the separations industry. Key separations of interest include desalting, whey concentration, sugar fractionation, fatty acid separation, nutraceutical extraction, pharmaceutical purification and black liquor concentration.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.