Separation of CO2 from Feed Gas Using Wetted Activated Carbon

• Main Author: Mohanad Syukri B Hashim, Mohanad Syukri
• Format: Final Year Project
• Published: Universiti Teknologi Petronas 2011
• Subjects: TP Chemical technology
• Online Access: http://utpedia.utp.edu.my/383/

A research project consisting of experimental study is currently underway to generate information required for the Separation of carbon dioxide (CO2) from feed gas using wetted activated carbon. The components of feed gas mixture source-separated domestic gas supplies studied for the first major in operation. Methane, carbon dioxide and C6-C11 hydrocarbons were determined by gas chromatographic methods. The content of methane was found to be just over 70% (v/v). The major polluting hydrocarbon in the feed gas was CO2 to be separated in a Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) at a constant room temperature in the range of 27oC to 30oC using wetted activated carbon as the adsorbent. The aim of this exploratory research is to understand the concept and to address some of the efects of such technique to ultimately separate CO2 using adsorption method from feed gas mixture of methane, CH4 and carbon dioxide, CO2 using water-preloaded activated carbon as the adsorbent and to compare the performance and effectiveness of the separation of carbon dioxide, CO2 from a feed gas mixture of methane-carbon dioxide (CH4-CO2) with a ratio of 60% CO2 (NL/min) and 40% CH4 (NL/min) or mathematically 3:2 using both dry granular and wetted activated carbon at pressures of 30 and 60 bars to investigate the effect of operating conditions towards the separation performances at different operating pressures comparatively. The equilibrium adsorption data of CO2 and CH4 on an activated carbon with a wide pore-size distribution are to be collected at the temperature of an approximated hydrate formation in the presence of water. Differently from methane, the adsorption behavior of CO2 has a remarkable influence of pore dimension of activated carbons no matter the carbon is wet or dry. However the challenge in this project as the whole would be on how to show that it affects the isotherm shape and the molar ratio of water to the fixed CO2 in wet activated carbon. In the study, the effect of pore dimension and the difference in the adsorption behavior between CO2 separation using dry granular and wetted activated carbon are also explained with regards to the phase behavior of CO2.