Preparation, Evaluation and Structural Modeling of Carbon-Based Adsorbents Used on Natural Gas Vehicles

130 p.Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1999.Activated carbon adsorbents are widely used in the chemical and environmental industries due to their large surface areas and strong ability to adsorb gases and liquids. In this study, activated carbons are prepared from low cost materials, and their application in natural gas storage is investigated. Micropore volume and bulk density of carbon adsorbents are found to be the most important factors for achieving a high volumetric methane storage capacity. Modeling of nitrogen and methane adsorption onto a porous carbon is also conducted to optimize its pore structure and maximize its methane storage capacity. A novel analytical 3-D model is developed to calculate the pore size distribution for porous materials on the basis of nitrogen adsorption at 77 K. This 3-D model is used to analyze the process of adsorbent preparation, and its other applications in chemical and environmental engineering are also explored.U of I OnlyRestricted to the U of I community idenfinitely during batch ingest of legacy ETD