Print Email Facebook Twitter High-performance polybenzimidazole membranes for helium extraction from natural gas Title High-performance polybenzimidazole membranes for helium extraction from natural gas Author Wang, X. (TU Delft ChemE/Catalysis Engineering) Shan, M. (TU Delft ChemE/Transport Phenomena) Liu, X. (TU Delft ChemE/Catalysis Engineering) Wang, M. (TU Delft Engineering Thermodynamics) Doherty, Cara M. (Oceans and Atmosphere) Osadchii, D. (TU Delft ChemE/Catalysis Engineering) Kapteijn, F. (TU Delft ChemE/Catalysis Engineering) Date 2019 Abstract Increasing helium use in research and production processes necessitates separation techniques to secure sufficient supply of this noble gas. Energy-efficient helium production from natural gas is still a big challenge. Membrane gas separation technology could play an important role. Herein, a novel poly(p-phenylene benzobisimidazole) (PBDI) polymeric membrane for helium extraction from natural gas with low He abundance is reported. The membranes were fabricated by a facile interfacial polymerization at room temperature. The thin and defect-free membrane structure was manipulated by the confined polymerization of monomers diffusing through the interface between two immiscible liquids. Both He/CH4 selectivity and He permeance are competitive over those of other commercial perfluoropolymers. Even at low He content of 1%, separation performance of the PBDI membrane transcended the current upper bound. The unprecedented selectivity (>1000) together with the excellent stability (∼360 h) endows PBDI membranes with a great potential for energy-efficient industrial recovery and production of this precious He resources from reservoirs with low abundance. Subject He separationinterfacial polymerizationmembranenatural gaspolybenzimidazole To reference this document use: http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:59072523-6390-4d96-a9ee-aa4740d0b63d DOI https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.9b05548 ISSN 1944-8244 Source ACS applied materials & interfaces, 11 (22), 20098-20103 Part of collection Institutional Repository Document type journal article Rights © 2019 X. Wang, M. Shan, X. Liu, M. Wang, Cara M. Doherty, D. Osadchii, F. Kapteijn Files PDF acsami.9b05548.pdf 1.53 MB Close viewer /islandora/object/uuid:59072523-6390-4d96-a9ee-aa4740d0b63d/datastream/OBJ/view