Adsorbent Screening for the Separation of CO₂, CH₄, and N₂

Abstract

The objective of this research was to determine an appropriate adsorbent for the separation of CH₄ from CO₂, N₂, and O₂. To screen different adsorbents for this purpose, pure component adsorption isotherms and gas mixture isotherms were measured. Adsorption isotherms are critical data for modeling adsorption processes. Thus, determining an accurate and reliable method of measuring gas adsorption isotherms is crucial. Concentration pulse chromatography can be used to measure the slope of the isotherm. In the case of pure component adsorption, the slope at different partial pressures of adsorbate can be integrated to determine the adsorption isotherm. The accuracy of the concentration pulse chromatography method was compared to that of gravimetric analysis to find an appropriate technique to obtain pure component gas adsorption isotherms by measuring CH₄ isotherms on activated carbon at 25°C and up to 6.3 atm. Isotherm results from concentration pulse chromatography were identical to gravimetric results, but the use of a sufficiently long column for concentration pulse chromatography was crucial. Afterwards, gravimetric analysis was used to determine the performance of activated carbon (AC A-C) and carbon molecular sieve (CMS A-D) adsorbents for adsorbing CO₂ and N₂. Additionally, O₂ adsorption isotherms were measured for CMS's. At 25°C and above atmospheric pressure, AC-B showed the highest CO₂ capacity and CO₂/N₂ selectivity. The isosteric heat of adsorption values of CO₂, N₂, and O₂ for the CMS's were calculated; CMS-A and CMS-C had high isosteric heat of adsorption values for CO₂, above 40 kJ mol⁻¹. Finally, the performance of activated carbon in separating a binary mixture of CO₂ and N₂ was experimentally measured by obtaining binary gas mixture adsorption isotherms using concentration pulse chromatography technique between 30-70°C and 1-5 atm total pressure. The OLC activated carbon showed selectivity for CO₂ over N₂, with the experimental results showing a slight deviation from theoretical predictions of the binary adsorption isotherms. Compared to other adsorbents in the literature, OLC had similar CO₂ and N₂ adsorption capacities but higher CO₂/N₂ selectivity.