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NOVEL CERAMIC-ORGANIC VAPOR PERMEATION MEMBRANES FOR VOC REMOVAL - PHASE I
Description:
Vapor permeation holds much promise for becoming a highly efficient means of preventing VOC emissions that are now generated by a variety of stationary sources, including solvent and surface coating operations, gasoline storage operations, and printing operations. A limitation of current vapor permeation (VP) process is the upper temperature limit for polymeric VP membranes, about 100-125?C. In most cases, this results in the need to employ cooling for compressed air feed and may also result in greater membrane areas than would be required for higher temperature operation. Wider application of the technology would be possible if inexpensive VP modules operable at appreciably higher temperatures were available. This proposal addresses development of such devices by use of low-cost, highly compact ceramic ultrafiltration modules as VP membrane supports in combination with a novel approach to VP membrane chemistry. In this proposal, an innovative method will be used to apply thin, defect-free vapor permeation membranes, based on silicone chemistries, to the ceramic supports. Vapor permeation membrane modules will subsequently be tested at temperatures ranging from 150?C to 300?C for removal of VOC's in synthetic gas streams at a laboratory scale. Based on the data obtained, the capital and operating costs of industrial scale systems will be estimated.