I-Corps: Reclaiming, separating, recycling, and repurposing fluorocarbon-based refrigerants

I-Corps：回收、分离、再循环和再利用碳氟化合物制冷剂

• 批准号: 2140448
• 负责人: Mark Shiflett
• 金额: $ 5万
• 依托单位: University of Kansas Center for Research Inc
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2021-08-15 至 2024-01-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2140448&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Corps; Reclaiming; separating; recycling; repurposing

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is the development of a technology for reclaiming, separating, recycling, and repurposing hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) refrigerants. Today, only a small fraction of refrigerants are reclaimed for re-use. Most fluorinated refrigerants have high global warming potential; By weight, they are orders of magnitude more potent than carbon dioxide in increasing global warming. The refrigerant industry tries to recover as much HFC as economically practical for re-use but they are challenged by the an array of mixtures of refrigerants that are not possible to separate. The result is that less than 10% of refrigerant is reclaimed and millions of kilograms of HFCs must be replaced in the U.S. annually. The proposed technology is designed to separate hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) refrigerant mixtures so components may be recycled. The market potential is valued at over $1 billion while preventing the release of HFCs would be equivalent to removing over 175 million metric tons of carbon dioxde (or emissions from 50 million cars) in one year. This I-Corps project is based on the development of energy-efficient processes to separate hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) mixtures so that the components may be recycled and repurposed into environmentally safe products. The proposed technology is based on ionic liquids, porous media, and membranes for the separation of HFC refrigerant mixtures. The integrated strategy of materials discovery and experimental measurements are tightly coupled with process modeling. Ionic liquids are being developed to separate HFC mixtures based on differences in gas solubility. Process simulations have been used to design an extractive distillation process that is under construction using an ionic liquids. The pilot-scale extractive distillation will provide proof-of-concept demonstration of the pressure/temperature swing adsorption system and a hollow-fiber membrane separation module.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

该I-Corps项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是开发用于回收，分离，回收和重新利用氢氟化合物（HFC）制冷剂的技术。 如今，仅收回一小部分制冷剂以重复使用。 大多数氟化的制冷剂具有很高的全球变暖潜力。按重量，它们的数量级比二氧化碳增加了全球变暖。 制冷剂行业试图在经济上恢复与重复利用的经济实用性一样多，但它们受到不可能分开的制冷剂混合物的挑战。 结果是，不到10％的制冷剂被收回，每年必须在美国更换数百万公斤的HFC。该提出的技术旨在将氢氟化合物（HFC）制冷剂混合物分开，因此可以回收组件。 市场潜力的价值超过10亿美元，而防止HFC的释放等同于消除一年内超过1.75亿吨的碳二氧化碳（或5000万辆汽车的排放）。该I-Corps项目基于节能过程的开发，以分离氢氟化碳（HFC）混合物，以便可以将组件回收并重新用于环境安全产品。 该提出的技术基于离子液体，多孔培养基和膜，用于分离HFC制冷剂混合物。 材料发现和实验测量的综合策略与过程建模紧密结合。基于气体溶解度的差异，正在开发离子液体以分离HFC混合物。工艺模拟已用于设计使用离子液体正在构造的提取蒸馏过程。试点尺度的提取蒸馏将提供概念概念的演示，以证明压力/温度摆动吸附系统和空心纤维膜分离模块。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并被认为是值得通过基金会的知识分子进行评估的支持。优点和更广泛的影响审查标准。