Progress 08/15/16 to 04/14/17
Outputs
Target Audience:
Nothing Reported
Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?
Nothing Reported
How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?
Nothing Reported
What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Task 4. Extended-term membrane performance/membrane fouling We are doing the membrane long term stability test by exposing the CMS membranes to the real biogas streams for 2 weeks. Our membranes are expected to be very stable under high humidity and high hydrogen sulfide conditions. Task 5. Engineering and Economic evaluations Based on the membrane performance, we are working on the engineering and economic analysis. All the technical goals in Phase I can be reached and we will have a very good economic evaluation of the new CMS biogas membrane. Overall, the project is going very smoothly. We are expecting a completely successful demonstration of the product and process feasibility at the end of this project.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Phase I Results Update Task 1. Synthesis of customized amorphous fluoropolymers Various batches of the customized CMS polymer have been successfully synthesized: First we successfully synthesized the customized CMS polymer (1st) for facilitated transport membranes as we proposed in the original proposal. We also found another type of polymer (2nd) is also a good biogas separation membrane material candidate. The third type of polymer can be used as a conventional diffusion-solution carbon dioxide/methane separation membrane. All the polymers are soluble in organic solvents so they are all easily processable. All the customized CMS polymers were characterized by DSC. CMS polymers are amorphous polymers so the gas membrane separations need to be operated under the glass transition temperature (Tg) of polymers. Since most of the biogas separation will be operated at room temperature or slightly above room temperature (no higher than 50°C), the CMS series polymers all have good glass transition temperatures to run the separations under those conditions. CMS has the infrared spectroscopy (IR) facilities to do the polymer structure analysis and quality control. IR spectra showed the absorption peaks of polymers are consistent with the CMS polymers' structures. Task 2. Fabricate composite membrane In this task, we successfully coated composite membranes with customized CMS polymers. The single gas tests showed the membranes have no significant defects and can be further tested in the mixed gas test. The 1st and 2nd polymer member do not show high selectivity under dry conditions. The third type polymer showed very high CO2/CH4 selectivity in the dry single gas test. Task 3. CO2/CH4 separation and effect of operating parameters After single gas tests of the CMS composite membranes, we used a CO2/CH4 mixed gas to test the real gas separation of the membranes. We used the CO2/CH4 mixed gas as the feed and the feed pressure was kept from 30-120 psig. The permeate came out from the permeation cell at the atmospheric pressure. We used a low stage cut (<3%) so the CO2 concentration of the retentate is not significantly different than that of the feed. The CO2 concentration in the feed, permeate and retentate was measured by a CO2 analyzer. The 1st and 2nd polymer showed good separation performance under humidified conditions while the 3rd polymer showed good selectivity under dry conditions. The CO2/CH4 ratio, trans-membrane pressure, humidity and H2S effects to the membrane performance are all tested and evaluated. Task 4. Extended-term membrane performance/membrane fouling We are doing the membrane long term stability test by exposing the CMS membranes to the real biogas streams for 2 weeks. Our membranes are expected to be very stable under high humidity and high hydrogen sulfide conditions. Task 5. Engineering and Economic evaluations Based on the membrane performance, we are working on the engineering and economic analysis. All the technical goals in Phase I can be reached and we will have a very good economic evaluation of the new CMS biogas membrane. Overall, the project is going very smoothly. We are expecting a completely successful demonstration of the product and process feasibility at the end of this project.
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Progress 08/15/16 to 04/14/17
Outputs
Target Audience:Our customers would be developers and owners of digesters and landfills. In particular, our technology would provide the greatest value for smaller facilities. We have talked to a number of individual farmers as well as developers of digester systems and have found that they are very sensitive to the overall economics of each project. The low cost of electricity and lack of viable economic upgrading options has prevented some digester projects from moving forward. Given the option that CMS's technology offers for a low cost, effective solution for upgrading the biogas, digester projects would be able to produce more value, making it easier to obtain the necessary upfront capital. Agricultural customers in particular tend to be very capital constrained and to be very concerned about the additional unit operations that will have to be added to their facilities. These customers want to change as little as possible about their existing operations. Therefore, a modular, capital-light, easy-to-use solution such as a membrane system is attractive to them from both a cost and operations perspective. Our technology would be useful both for new or existing installations. In the case of new installations, the digester developer/owner could make the decision to not install electricity generation equipment and instead simply upgrade the gas and send it elsewhere for use. In this case, the value of the gas is a direct result of whatever use it is destined for (e.g., vehicle use, electricity generation at a central site, use as a heating fuel, etc.). Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?
Nothing Reported
How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?
Nothing Reported
What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
This SBIR program has been extremely successful. We have met or exceeded all of the key objectives. We have successfully demonstrated the product and process feasibility. Compact Membrane Systems proposed a membrane separation technology which can efficiently upgrade biogas to biomethane (remove CO2, H2S and H2O). The biomethane production will significantly improve the economics of the anaerobic digestion. We have developed membranes with very high CO2 flux and very high CO2/CH4, H2S/CH4 and H2O/CH4 selectivity. These membranes have shown excellent long term resistance to high concentration H2S biogas. Economic analysis shows at least 37% cost savings compared with conventional membrane separation used in biogas upgrading. Given our success to date, we have been able to establish key direct partnerships with other companies. The primary objective of the Phase I program was to develop a stable membrane that is capable of providing very efficient and cost effective production of biomethane from biogas. The CMS fluorinated membrane developed during this program was found to be able to provide very good CO2/CH4 selectivity and outstanding permeance. With the development of the fast and highly selective biogas CMS membrane, we have achieved all our Phase I program objectives. This is especially true of the estimated cost of OEA production that is projected to be over 37% less than the conventional method (PSA or VSA) at small or medium scale applications (500 Nm3/h). The final result is better than the Phase I goal of 30% less. In summary, during the Phase I, we developed a CMS membrane with a high CO2 permeance good CO2/CH4 selectivity. The stability and anti-fouling ability of the biogas membrane was demonstrated by exposing the membrane to a real biogas stream for 2 weeks. A membrane based biogas production system was designed and the economic and engineering evaluation using the VMGSim models predicted a cost of $1.40/MMBtu biogas upgrading at 500 Nm3/h. As previously stated this is at least a 37% cost reduction from the conventional methods and higher than the Phase I goal (30% cost reduction). The successful Phase I research attracted the interest from several major industrial players who are willing to provide partnership and support of further research. Successful development of the fluoropolymer membranes for CO2/CH4 separation in the process of upgrading of biogas will provide significant benefits to the public: It will reduce the environmental pollution from animal manure; It will reduce the greenhouse gas emission from animal manure degradation; It will produce renewable energy and generate jobs in agricultural area in US.
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