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Dr.
Stuart Nemser, Principal Investigator, snemser@compactmembrane.com
Ms. Nadine
Cragg-Lester, Business Official, nlester@compactmembrane.com
DOE Grant No. DE-FG02-00ER83132
Amount:
$600,000
There
are economic and environmental justifications for replacing conventional
distillation processes with simpler membrane separations in certain
applications. However, at present,
there are no commercial membranes able to withstand the aggressive conditions
associated with important industrial chemicals, including hydrogen fluoride,
hydrogen chloride, and ozone. Prototype,
chemically resistant perfluorinated membranes have been developed and
demonstrated to function with hydrogen fluoride and hydrogen chloride gases.
Using these membranes, this project will demonstrate several useful
separations that have been requested by industrial gas manufacturers.
In Phase I, novel membrane formulations were tested and verified with HCl
and HF aggressive gases. Chemical
compatibility and high gas flux were measured.
Phase II will construct and test commercial membrane modules from the
formulations demonstrated in Phase I. The
process will be scaled-up and the economic advantages of using these membrane
separations for semi-conductor and hydrogen fluoride alkylation manufacturing
will be demonstrated.
Commercial Applications and Other Benefits as described by the awardee: Applications include purification
of materials in semiconductor manufacturing, waste reduction, and recycling of
corrosive gases such as hydrogen fluoride and hydrogen chloride in petroleum
processing.