Effects of sodium precursors and gelling agents on CO2 sorption performance of sodium zirconate

Abstract

AbstractCO2 capture using solid sorbents is among the technologies to mitigate CO2 emission. Sodium zirconate (Na2ZrO3) is among the solid sorbents with very good CO2 sorption performance and stability. In this study, effects of sodium precursors and addition of citric acid (CA) and ethylene glycol (EG) as gelling agents at different molar ratios on CO2 capture properties of Na2ZrO3 were examined. CO2 capture performance of the prepared samples was tested in a thermogravimetric analyser (TGA). The CO2 sorption profiles of all samples reached plateau within 20 min, signifying fast sorption kinetics. The highest CO2 sorption amount of 4.905 mmol CO2/g Na2ZrO3 (91% of theoretical yield) was achieved for the Na2ZrO3 sorbent prepared with sodium citrate precursor and addition of gelling agents at CA:EG molar ratio of 2:1. This was higher than the one prepared without CA and EG (83% yield). These two samples were further tested for regeneration stability and revealed that the sample prepared with CA and EG had better stability than the one prepared without CA and EG. The results achieved in this study show that the choice of sodium precursor and addition of CA and EG have significant effects on the CO2 capture performance of Na2ZrO3. © 2015 Curtin University of Technology and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.