(152f) Scale-up of Perfluoro(butenyl vinyl ether) (PBVE) and Perfluoro(2,2-dimethyl-1,3-dioxole) (PDD) Copolymers for the Separation of R-410A

The separation of hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) refrigerant mixtures is becoming a timely issue due to recent legislation calling for the regulation of their use and production. There is currently no technology deployed in the refrigerant market for separating refrigerants and energy efficient solutions are needed to avoid wasted refrigerant value and mitigate environmental consequences. The use of fluoropolymers has been explored in the literature for HFC separation using small-scale membrane films, but industrial scale applications require larger surface area for efficient separations. This study considers thin coatings of perfluoro(butenyl vinyl ether) (PBVE) and perfluoro(2,2-dimethyl-1,3-dioxole) (PDD) copolymers on hollow fiber supports in order to scale up the separation of difluoromethane (HFC-32, CH₂F₂) and pentafluoroethane (HFC-125, CHF₂CF₃) previously reported on in the literature. A one micron coating of 30 mol% PBVE-co-70 mol % PDD was applied to the hollow fiber supports using a dip-coat method. SEM imaging was used to verify coating methods and the thickness and uniformity of the resulting coating. The coated fibers were assembled in a membrane module and tested in terms of membrane performance and selectivity, indicating a high selectivity for this scaled-up separation.