MICRO-SCALE CONTINUOUS CO2 ADSORPTION COLUMN DESIGN WITH ZEOLITE 5A ADSORBENT

Abstract

CO2 is the primary greenhouse gas which mainly stems from human activities. Increased CO2 emission in the atmosphere promotes global warming, which adversely affects human health and the environment. Adsorption is proposed as one of the practical and economical methods for CO2 removal. Zeolite 5A is an adsorbent that can be employed in CO2 adsorption due to its high porosity and adsorption capacity. In this study, we investigate the CO2 adsorption behavior by zeolite 5A adsorbent in a continuous, micro-scale fixed-bed column at different bed heights. Gas chromatography was utilized to determine CO2 exit concentrations. The column pressure drop was calculated using Ergun's equation. The obtained data were analyzed in the form of breakthrough curves, then fitted to Thomas and Yoon-Nelson's mathematical model to obtain adsorption rate coefficient in the column. The experimental data of CO2 adsorption by zeolite 5A shows the good correspondence with both Thomas’s and Yoon-Nelson’s mathematical models. At a flow rate of 30 mL/min and bed height variations of 10 and 12 cm, the CO2 adsorption capacities (q0) were 0.0071 and 0.0099 mol/g, respectively. While the Thomas’s adsorption rate coefficient, kTH, for the same conditions were 0.4164 min-1 and 0.4342 min-1.