Captura de CO2 – estudo do equilíbrio de adsorção por técnica gravimétrica com adsorventes comerciais e modificados

Abstract

The increase in CO2 levels in the atmosphere has had a remarkable impact on the greenhouse effect, global warming and climate change issues. More recently, there has been an increasingly large number of publications dealing with the separation of CO2 from gaseous streams emitted from stationary sources associated with combustion processes (e.g., thermal energy generation). Several approaches to capture CO2 have been proposed, including adsorption on porous solids. Adsorption mechanisms may vary from weak physisorption to strong chemisorption interactions. It is essential that the adsorbent exhibits high CO2 selectivity, large adsorption capacity and that such properties are kept constant upon prolonged use (adsorption and desorption cycles). In this study, commercial activated carbon and 13 X zeolite were used, as such and after being impregnated with amino groups, in order to increase the adsorption capacity and selectivity. The textural characterization was performed by N2 isotherms at 77 K and adsorption equilibrium for target gases was studied for the adsorbents with adequate textural characteristics. CO2, CH4 and N2 monocomponent adsorption isotherms on the pre-selected adsorbents were measured in the pressure range up to 10 bar and two temperatures (298 and 348 K) in order evaluate the adsorption capacity and selectivity. The amine impregnation had a detrimental effect on the textural properties (surface area, pore volume) for zeolite 13X and some activated carbon samples, probably due to inadequate impregnation and drying conditions. Impregnation carried out with dilute amine solution and dried under inert atmosphere did not affect significantly the texture of the modified activated carbon. Moreover, the adsorption capacity was enhanced for this modified carbon at the 348 K, probably due to chemical interactions between the amino group and CO2. As a general rule, the CO2 adsorption capacity was high on activated carbon at high pressures (> 10 bar) and on zeolites at low pressures (0 – 2 bar).