Tailored Stable Membranes for Molecular Separation Integrated with Continuous Reaction under Supercritical Conditions (07055)

Project nummer: 07055

Omschrijving van het onderzoek

The proposed research is aimed at the development of new generations of stable membranes for efficient molecular separation of products and reactants, under harsh (chemical) conditions. These membranes will boost practical and economical viability of various chemical processes, in particular processes for which currently robust separation is unfeasible. Potentially most stable membrane materials are sol-gel derived amorphous transition metal oxides. Synthesis of these materials is complicated by moisture sensitivity of the required precursors. Moreover, at present there is insufficient knowledge concerning optimal membrane materials properties, such as pore morphology and internal surface features. New sol-gel chemistry strategies will be developed for materials synthesis, starting from newly developed precursors. Various experimental techniques will be used and developed to obtain insight in physical and chemical phenomena that determine the separation performance as well as the stability of the membranes. Pore morphology and internal surface features of membrane materials will be modified to achieve high fluxes combined with high selectivity under extreme conditions encountered in supercritical fluids. This will enable, e.g., high retention of expensive homogeneous catalysts, and will help to avoid expensive recompression in the regeneration of the supercritical fluid. In turn, this will allow efficient operation of reactions involving permanent gases, such as hydrogenations, (partial) oxidations, carbonylations, and hydroformylations, due to the complete miscibility of these gases with a supercritical fluid. Long term membrane performance will be evaluated in the homogeneously catalysed hydroformylation of octene in supercritical CO2. For this reaction the demands on nanofiltration efficiency are particularly high, given the small differences in the molecular weights of the catalyst (ligands) and other components present in the supercritical fluid.

Gebruikers

Four companies and one other university are involved in this project.

Projectleider

Dr. N.E. Benes

Technische Universiteit Eindhoven
Scheikundige Technologie
Procesontwikkeling (SPD)

Postbus 513
5600 MB Eindhoven

Status van het project

Gestart	: 01-01-2006
Einddatum	: 01-01-2011

Trefwoorden

Membranen, Nanofiltratie, Scheidingstechnologie, Superkristische vloeistoffen.

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