(372j) Project Earth (Environmentally Applied Research Towards Hydrofluorocarbons) Ionic Liquids Approach

Project EARTH (Environmentally Applied Research Toward Hydrofluorocarbons) is a collaborative project focused on developing sustainable processes for the selective separation of hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) refrigerant mixtures. The initial focus of the project is on R-410A, an azeotropic mixture containing 50 wt.% HFC-125 (CHF₂CF₃) and 50 wt.% HFC-32 (CH₂F₂). Project EARTH is exploring three separation approaches including, ionic liquids as entrainers for extractive distillation, polymeric membranes, and porous materials such as zeolites.

This poster will describe the work being conducted using the ionic liquids approach and will specifically focus on physical property measurements, equation of state modeling, and a lab-scale separation process. The poster will include an overview of how we use specialized equipment including a Hiden Isochema IGA gravimetric balance, a High-Pressure View Cell, a Hiden Isochema XEMIS with the Integral Mass Balance method, a VLLE apparatus, and a Setaram Calorimeter to build a comprehensive understanding of both pure HFC+IL and binary HFC+IL mixture systems.