Development of an adsorbent for carbon dioxide based on amine-impregnated porous supports

Carbon dioxide is a ubiquitous species that has received much attention particularly because of its greenhouse gas effect. Whether because of environmental constraints or technical reasons, various industries are faced with the task of removing CO2 from gas mixtures containing a wide range of species in different concentrations. The most commonly employed technologies for this separation are gas-liquid absorption with aqueous solutions of alkanolamines and gas-solid adsorption with zeolites. To benefit from the advantages of each of these separation technologies, a porous solid support was impregnated with an alkanolamine to develop a high capacity, water tolerant adsorbent for CO2. During the course of the developmental study, several amines were considered for impregnation, and it was decided to use diethanolamine (DEA) for further studies. Supports that were examined were activated carbon, silica gel, MCM-41 and pore-expanded MCM-41 (PE-MCM-41) silicas. (Abstract shortened by UMI.