You are here:
NOVEL CERAMIC-ORGANIC VAPOR PERMEATION MEMBRANES FOR VOC REMOVAL - PHASE II
Description:
Vapor permeation with highly permeable and organic-selective membranes is becoming an increasingly popular technique for preventing VOC emissions that are 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) processes is the upper temperature limit for polymeric VP membranes, about 100-125 degrees 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 the Phase I program, highly selective, defect-free vapor permeation membranes, based on silicone chemistries, were applied to the ceramic supports and demonstrated to be stable during vapor permeation at 250 degrees C for over sixty hours. In proposed Phase II work, the permeability properties of the membranes would be optimized and membrane application would be scaled up to industrial-scale modules incorporating 11 m2 membrane area.