Conventional hydrothermal synthesis of nanoporous molecular sieve 13X for selective adsorption of trace amount of hydrogen sulfide from mixture with propane

Abstract

Nanoporous molecular sieve 13X was successfully synthesized through the conventional hydrothermal method by using sodium aluminates as Al source and water-glass solution as an economic reagent for Si source. The hydrothermal reaction was performed under a static condition in an air oven maintained at 90 ± 5 °C for 24 h. Nano molecular sieve was characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and nitrogen adsorption desorption tests. The adsorption capacity of molecular sieve 13X for trace amount of hydrogen sulfide (72 ppm) mixed with propane was investigated using the volumetric method by two different detectors. After adsorption process the amount of H2S in output gas was about 27 ppm and this confirms approximately more than 62% adsorption at 25 bar and 298 K. As compare CO2 adsorption capacity was measured by the same method. The high adsorption capacity of CO2 is attributed to the high micropore volume on 13X sample. Therefore a cost-effective adsorbent was synthesized successfully to separate the small amounts of acidic and corrosive gas (H2S) from propane.