Open Competition - Advanced Materials/Chemicals (October 1999)

Application of Molecular Gate {TM} Technology to Oxygen Enrichment of Air Streams and Simplified Purification of Natural Gas

Sponsor: Engelhard Corporation

• Project Performance Period: 12/1/1999 - 11/30/2002
• Total project (est.): $4,499,000.00
• Requested ATP funds: $1,799,000.00

An estimated 10-15 percent of U.S. natural gas reserves are sub-quality because of contamination, and existing purification methods are complicated and costly. Similarly, oxygen is among the most important bulk chemicals produced in the United States, but high production costs preclude potentially important new applications. Engelhard Corp. will attempt to develop and demonstrate advanced separation technologies that can be "tuned" to the exact molecular size needed for the one-step purification of natural gas or the generation of oxygen-enriched airstreams. The research will exploit a new concept called Molecular Gate^Tm technology, a sieve-like titanium silicate lattice that contracts to yield controllable, uniform pore sizes. The project will try to demonstrate, for the first time, the simultaneous removal of nitrogen, water, carbon dioxide, and hydrogen sulfide from natural gas. Both pressure-driven adsorption and membrane approaches will be pursued. The challenge is to achieve precise, reproducible, and robust control over a wide range of pore sizes associated with the separation of many commercially important molecules. The new adsorbents will enable flexible, simplified, environmentally friendly separations. If successful, the new technology could yield an additional $1.4 billion of marketable natural gas per year, with potential applications in other fields, such as removal of sulfur dioxide from stack gases and alcohol dehydration. Oxygen-enriched airstreams from this new method could improve the economics of transportable oxygen for medical needs and provide for cleaner-burning diesel engines. This technology is at too early a stage for Engelhard to find suitable industrial partners, and ATP co-funding will enable Engelhard to build partnerships with academic institutions without whose scientific and engineering expertise this project could not proceed. Certain analysis, modeling, and fabrication tasks will be performed by subcontractors Cleveland State University (Cleveland, Ohio), University of South Alabama (Mobile, Ala.), and University of Massachusetts (Amherst, Mass.).

For project information:

Mark Dresner, (732) 205-6282
mark.dresner@engelhard.com

ATP Project Manager

Jean-Louis Staudenmann, (301) 975-4866
jstaudenmann@nist.gov