The development of low cost adsorbents from clay and waste materials: a review

Abstract

Increased energy consumption due to industrial growth has increased the levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) emission being released into the atmosphere. CO2 emission is a type of greenhouse gas which is a major cause of global warming. Since the issue of CO2 emissions has drawn much attention in recent years, the development of CO2 capture technology has become a necessity. Although CO2 adsorbents are still at the early development stage, it has been suggested that CO2 adsorbents are the most effective technology in controlling CO2 emissions. Solid adsorbents have great potential as an alternative method to conventional adsorbents in adsorbing CO2. In this paper, low cost adsorbents including activated carbon, zeolites, mesoporous silica and clays are discussed in terms of adsorbent preparation methods and CO2 adsorption capacity. The low cost adsorbents are mainly derived from waste materials such as fly ash, steel slag, red mud, bagasses wastes and wood wastes. Besides that, natural resources such as clays have also been applied as low cost CO2 adsorbents. Surface modifications have also been applied to the low cost adsorbents, including metal ion exchange and amine impregnation to enhance CO2 adsorption capacity. In the last section, the current status of CO2 adsorbents is summarized and future trends are discussed briefly to predict the potential materials which can be applied as CO2 adsorbents.