Polymer Membranes for the Separation of Complex Natural Hydrocarbon Feeds

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MATHIAS-DISSERTATION-2021.pdf (7.39 MB)
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Mathias, Ronita
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School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
School established in 1901 as the School of Chemical Engineering; in 2003, renamed School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
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http://hdl.handle.net/1853/67177
Abstract
Polymer Membranes for the Separation of Complex Natural Hydrocarbon Feeds Ronita Mathias 231 Pages Directed by Dr. Ryan P. Lively The separation of complex liquid mixtures, which are mixtures without a clear singular solvent, is an emerging area of membrane science. Crude oil is one such complex industrial mixture that is comprised of several tens of thousands of hydrocarbon molecules but is typically fractionated via energy-intensive thermal processes. In this work, specific light fractions of crude oil were separated via novel spirocyclic polymer membranes, with the potential for bypassing significant energy expenditure associated with distillation. Polymeric materials are of interest for membrane fabrication as they are easily processable, inexpensive, and can be easily functionalized for stability. However, for membrane-based fractionation of crude oil to compete with current distillation processes on an industrial scale, multi-stage cascades containing several high-throughput membranes must be optimized. The capability to predict multi-molecule transport in target materials can accelerate the screening and design of materials for cascades that would otherwise require lengthy R&D timelines. Thus, advanced models were also utilized in this work to predict complex mixture permeation in polymeric membranes based only on pure molecule sorption and diffusion inputs. These simplifying hypotheses could enable an extension of predictive capabilities to N-component mixtures of hydrocarbons, of which there are many industrially relevant streams, not limited to crude oil. One of the limitations to the industrial implementation of this type of membrane-based process is whether the polymer membranes can be fabricated in a scalable manner. Therefore, a roll-to-roll dip-coating process was used to demonstrate the continuous fabrication of thin film composite hollow fiber membranes. In this precursive work, a more established spirocyclic polymer, PIM-1, was coated on a commercial polymer support to investigate the feasibility of this process for the novel spirocyclic polymers identified for crude oil separations. Upon successful demonstration, the learnings could be used to develop large-scale polymeric membranes capable of excellent separation performance in complex mixtures coupled with fast transport rates.
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2021-08-02
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