SBIR Phase II: New Synthetic Approaches to Higher Performance, Lower Cost CO2/CH4 Gas Separation Membranes

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase II project aims to develop a new gas separation polymer membrane technology created in Phase I to significantly improve the ability to separate carbon dioxide from methane. Successful utilization of this new technology to separation of these commercially important gases will provide better performance at lower cost than current methods for separating carbon dioxide and methane. The approach to this problem involves construction of new-to-the-world polymer architecture. The monomer units, which are the building blocks to the polymer membranes desired, will be individually designed to pass carbon dioxide molecules through the membrane faster than methane molecules. The broader impact/commercial potential from the technology developed in the project will be a commercially robust membrane able to resist degradation under operation in real field conditions, which will lead to the production of prototype gas separation modules for field testing and will further expand applications to other gas separations such as oxygen and nitrogen.