SBIR-STTR Award

Perfluoroalkyl iodides (PFAIs) are members of a growing classof specialty fluorochemicals that are domestically available from E.I.DuPont de Nemours, Inc., Hoechst Celanese Corporation, PCR, Inc., and SCMCorporation. They generally serve as precursors to a wide range ofproducts including thin membranes, plastics, floor care products, firefighting surfactants, anesthetics, lubricants, and blood substitutes. DuPont alone annually generates as much as 40,000 pounds of hazardous waste during production of PFAIs primarily due to antimony pentafluoride(SbF5) spent catalyst. The spent catalyst is a complex mixture offluorinated antimony and iodine adducts, high boiling PFAIs, andelemental iodine. It is extremely hazardous and corrosive and must firstbe neutralized before it is buried in a hazardous waste landfill. This neutralization process expands the mass of the hazardous waste to be landfilled by as much as 50%.In their proposal, Chemical & Metal Industries, Inc., (C&MI) suggests a six month study aimed at characterization of spent catalyst residue and exploration of possible reclamation schemes for the active portion of thespent catalyst. It also proposes a method for recovery and recycle ofiodine, the presence of which has been confirmed by preliminary observations. By implementing a recovery/recycle policy, C&MI expects toreduce the amount of solid waste generated during PFAI manufacture by50-75%, depending on the nature of the recovered constituents.

The Phase II work will demonstrate at pilot scale the successful recovery of antimony and iodine values from spentperfluoroalkyl-iodide (PFAI) catalyst. The technical feasibility of thisinnovation and simple recovery process was demonstrated in Phase I. This recovery process was shown to be capable of nearly 100% recovery of bothantimony and iodine values without generation of hazardous air emissions,or process effluents.The technical merit of the Phase II effort lies primarily in its development of the design data for the commercial scale plant to processthis spent catalyst. In addition to providing this necessary informationfor the commercialization of this process, the Phase II pilot plant willalso produce samples of recovered antimony trifluoride and iodine formarket evaluation.Upon successful completion of the Phase II objectives, Chemical and MetalIndustries, Inc. has confirmed its intent to proceed to commercializationof the technology to process spent PFAI catalyst for recovery of antimonyand iodine values. Processing of spent catalyst will completelyeliminated this hazardous waste stream from the PFAI production processthus furthering EPA's goals of waste minimization or elimination.