Project EARTH (Environmentally Applied Research Toward Hydrofluorocarbons) is focused on developing sustainable processes for selectively separating refrigerant mixtures with high global warming potentials. The initial focus of the project is R-410A which is widely used in both commercial refrigeration systems and residential air conditioning. It is an azeotropic mixture containing 50 wt.% HFC-32 (CH2F2) and 50 wt.% HFC-125 (CHF2CF3). The separation approaches being investigated include membranes, porous media, and the use of ionic liquids as entrainers for extractive distillation.

This poster will describe the work being conducted using ionic liquids and will specifically focus on the impact of phase changes of imidazolium based ionic liquids that are solid at room temperature on the solubility of HFC-32 and HFC-125. The poster will include an overview of how we use specialized equipment including a High-Pressure View Cell and Hiden Isochema IGA gravimetric microbalance to build a comprehensive understanding of these solubility differences.