Highly Fluorinated Nanoporous Molecular Sieve Membranes for Efficient CO2 Separation

Summary

The separation of carbon dioxide is important for the purification of natural gas, flue gas recycling and greenhouse gas mitigation. But removing CO2 from flue gas or other sources is challenging. Traditional methods of chemical adsorption are extremely energy intensive. The use of fluorinated membranes for CO2 separation could be a much more energy efficient process with the appropriate membrane. This technology provides highly fluorinated nanoporous molecular sieve membranes for efficient CO2 separation.

Description

With this invention we have identified membranes that exhibit good CO2 separation performance and high thermal stability under air atmosphere, which make them a promising candidate for future scale-up industrial applications for carbon dioxide separation. The membranes are fluoridated molecular sieve membranes, which will allow a much less energy extensive separation of CO2 compared to the state-of-the-art methods of chemical absorption and desorption processes that require significant energy input to recover the CO2 and regenerate the absorbent material, typically an ethanolamine derivative. The membranes use a unique cross-link in that they are fluoridated. This technology is useful not only for CO2 separation, but could be used for methane and other natural gases.

Applications and Industries

• Natural gas industry
• Environmental companies
• Gas recyclers
• Desalinization industry

Benefits

• Allows much less energy extensive separation of carbon dioxide compared to the state-of-the art methods of chemical absorption
• Technology could be useful in desalinization to remove salt for fresh water anywhere it’s needed
• Membrane allows CO2 separation from nitrogen that can be converted back to other chemicals
• Membrane separation can aid in mitigation of climate issues