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A Novel, Inorganic, Surface-Diffusion Membrane for Hydrogen Separations--TDA Research, Inc., 12345 West 52nd Avenue, Wheat Ridge, CO  80033-1917; 303-940-2300

Dr. Ronald L. Cook, Principal Investigator

Mr. John D. Wright, Business Official

DOE Grant No. DE-FG03-00ER83103

Amount:  $100,000

 

Industrial separations are involved in almost every chemical and petrochemical process and represent a significant percentage of capital and operating costs in these industries.  Membrane based separations offer the potential to reduce both these costs while delivering improved product purity.  TDA proposes the development of a new process and material for the production of supported inorganic membranes with pore diameters in the 10 Å to 20 Å range.  The new supported membranes have adsorption properties similar to Group VII metals but are resistant to coking and sulfur poisoning.  These new membrane materials are expected to provide both high permeance and high separation factors for hydrogen.  In the Phase I project TDA will prepare the supported membranes and characterize their performance for separation of hydrogen from light hydrocarbon off-gas streams

 

Commercial Applications and Other Benefits as described by the awardee:  In the Phase I project, we will demonstrate the use of a new membrane material for the separation of hydrogen by competitive adsorption and selective surface diffusion.  Separation of hydrogen from mixed gas streams is expected to have a significant bottom-line effect on a number of large industrial processes (e.g. ammonia production, refinery operations, methanol synthesis, paraffin to olefin conversion, etc.) where hydrogen separation is inefficient and costly.