NSF Award
9961414
This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project focuses on the separation of olefins from saturated hydrocarbons. The separation of olefins from paraffins is currently carried out by distillation, which is an extremely energy-intensive process due to the very low relative volatilities of the components. The selectivities and gas fluxes of polymer membranes are inadequate for olefin separation from paraffins. Facilitated transport membranes have higher selectivities and gas fluxes than polymeric membranes for olefin/paraffin separation but their application have limited by membrane selectivity, low gas fluxes, and the requirement of a water-saturated feed. To overcome these problems a new type of solid-polymer-electrolyte facilitated transport membrane with high gas fluxes and high selectivities will be developed for the separation of olefins from paraffins. The membranes consist of rubbery, polyether-based polymers that form polymer electrolyte solutions with the ionic salts used as gas-complexing agents. To provide high gas fluxes, the resulting polymer is formed into thin-film composite membranes. Preliminary studies indicated that these novel membranes show dramatically improved performance over conventional facilitated transport membranes for olefin/paraffin separation and can be used with a dry feed. The membranes are stable in ethylene/ethane separation experiments for up to 40 days.<br/><br/>If successfully developed, polymer electrolyte composite membranes will significantly reduce energy consumption in olefin/paraffin separation in the petroleum refining industry. The anticipated improvements in gas separation performance over state-of-the-art facilitated transport membranes will make membrane systems competitive over conventional distillation technology for this or similar applications.
