[TECHNOLOGY OPPORTUNITY 2005-004]

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Switchable Surfactants
Tech ID: 2005-004

Description:
Researchers at Queen’s University have developed an environmentally benign way of creating industrially relevant emulsions and then breaking the emulsion at a desired stage. The process uses long-chain alkyl amidine compounds that can be reversibly transformed into charged surfactants by exposure to low pressure carbon dioxide (CO2). Experimentally the researchers have demonstrated the method in stabilizing water-in-alkane emulsions or, for the purpose of microsuspension polymerization, styrene-in-water emulsions. They have also created neutral amidines that function as switchable demulsifiers of aqueous crude oil emulsions. The results of their work were recently published in Science (Aug 18, 2006).

Background:
Surfactants are designed to stabilize emulsions during certain stages in cleaning, manufacturing, oil recovery and other processes. Existing cleavable surfactants could be used to address this problem, but still suffer from several drawbacks, primarily the difficulty of breaking the surfactant-stabilized temporary emulsion. Existing switchable surfactants, by contrast, can undergo fully reversible interconversions between active and inactive forms and have the additional advantages that their activity can be delayed until needed, they can be recovered and reused afterward, and their removal from the product stream can be facilitated by switching the surfactant to the form least soluble in the relevant medium. However, the nature of the trigger can significantly limit the practical viability of switchable surfactants. By contrast, the new switchable surfactants designed by the researchers at Queen’s use benign gases (CO2 and air) as the triggers to switch them “on” and “off”.

Applications:
Temporary emulsions are of practical interest in many areas, including:
• enhanced oil-recovery (EOR);
• separation of oil from oil sands;
• viscous oil transportation through pipelines;
• emulsion and microsuspension polymerizations;
• cleaning and metal degreasing of equipment; and
• cosmetic emulsions which are intended to separate upon use.
In these applications, an emulsion is only useful during one stage of a process, after which the surfactant becomes a liability that hinders separation of the components.

Status of Development:
PARTEQ Innovations, the technology transfer arm of Queen’s University, has sought broad patent protection on the methods and surfactants and is seeking industrial partners willing to support on-going development of the process and/or are interested in licensing the intellectual property.

Contact:
Anne Vivian-Scott, MBA, PEng
Director, Commercial Development
P: 613. 533. 2342
E: avivianscott@parteqinnovations.com
Ref: Tech ID 2005-004