SBIR Phase I: Surface Passivation to Prevent Coking in Pyrolisis Environments

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project focuses on the development of novel solid state facilitated transport membranes for the separation of carbon dioxide/hydrogen and carbon dioxide/methane mixtures. Current best technologies are amine absorption or pressure-swing-adsorption both expensive, energy intensive processes. The key objective of this project is to deliver a new type of facilitated transport membrane in the form of a solid polymer electrolyte. To provide high gas fluxes, the membranes will be formed as thin-film composites. Preliminary studies indicate that solid polymer electrolyte composite membranes can show significantly improved performance over conventional facilitated transport and polymeric membranes. Separation of carbon dioxide from natural gas and from hydrogen-containing refinery off-gases in refineries present a significant opportunity for membrane-based-gas separation. About 17% of U.S. natural gas requires processing to remove carbon dioxide. In refineries, hydrogen is typically produced by steam reforming of natural gas or light hydrocarbons and must be separated from carbon dioxide, which is produced as a by-product. Membrane separation offers many advantages over amine absorption or pressure-swing adsorption in these two applications. However more selective and robust membranes are needed to achieve these economics over conventional separation technology and this is reason for developing solid polymer electrolyte composite membranes.