Pure and Binary Gas Adsorption Equilibria and Kinetics of Methane and Nitrogen on 4A Zeolite by Isotope Exchange Technique

Abstract

The Isotope Exchange Technique (IET) was used to simultaneously measure pure and binary gas adsorption equilibria and kinetics (self-diffusivities) of CH4 and N2 on pelletized 4A zeolite. The experiment was carried out isothermally without disturbing the adsorbed phase. CH4 was selectively adsorbed over N2 by the zeolite because of its higher polarizability. The multi-site Langmuir model described the pure gas and binary adsorption equilibria fairly well at three different temperatures. The selectivity of adsorption of CH4 over N2 increased with increasing pressure at constant gas phase composition and temperature. This curious behavior was caused by the differences in the sizes of the adsorbates. The diffusion of CH4 and N2 into the zeolite was an activated process and the Fickian diffusion model described the uptake of both pure gases and their mixtures. The self-diffusivity of N2 was an order of magnitude larger than that for CH4. The pure gas self-diffusivities for both components were constants over a large range of surface coverages (0 < θ < 0.5). The self-diffusivities of CH4 and N2 from their binary mixtures were not affected by the presence of each other, compared to their pure gas self-diffusivities at identical surface coverages.