Monte Carlo Simulation and Experimental Studies of CO2, CH4 and Their Mixture Capture in Porous Carbons

Adsorption of carbon dioxide and methane in porous activated carbon and carbon nanotube was studied experimentally and by Grand Canonical Monte Carlo (GCMC) simulation. A gravimetric analyzer was used to obtain the experimental data, while in the simulation we used graphitic slit pores of various pore size to model activated carbon and a bundle of graphitic cylinders arranged hexagonally to model carbon nanotube. Carbon dioxide was modeled as a 3-center-Lennard-Jones (LJ) molecule with three fixed partial charges, while methane was modeled as a single LJ molecule. We have shown that the behavior of adsorption for both activated carbon and carbon nanotube is sensitive to pore width and the crossing of isotherms is observed because of the molecular packing, which favors commensurate packing for some pore sizes. Using the adsorption data of pure methane or carbon dioxide on activated carbon, we derived its pore size distribution (PSD), which was found to be in good agreement with the PSD obtained from the analysis of nitrogen adsorption data at 77 K. This derived PSD was used to describe isotherms at other temperatures as well as isotherms of mixture of carbon dioxide and methane in activated carbon and carbon nanotube at 273 and 300 K. Good agreement between the computed and experimental isotherm data was observed, thus justifying the use of a simple adsorption model.     

Gas adsorption in active carbons and the slit-pore model 2: Mixture adsorption prediction with DFT and IAST

We use a fast density functional theory (a "slab-DFT") and the polydisperse independent ideal slit-pore model to predict gas mixture adsorption in active carbons. The DFT is parametrized by fitting to pure gas isotherms generated by Monte Carlo simulation of adsorption in model graphitic slit-pores. Accurate gas molecular models are used in our Monte Carlo simulations with gas-surface interactions calibrated to a high surface area carbon, rather than a low surface area carbon as in all previous work of this type, as described in part 1 of this work. We predict the adsorption of binary mixtures of carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrogen on two active carbons up to about 30 bar at near-ambient temperatures. We compare two sets of results; one set obtained using only the pure carbon dioxide adsorption isotherm as input to our pore characterization process, and the other obtained using both pure gas isotherms as input. We also compare these results with ideal adsorbed solution theory (IAST). We find that our methods are at least as accurate as IAST for these relatively simple gas mixtures and have the advantage of much greater versatility. We expect similar results for other active carbons and further performance gains for less ideal mixtures.     

Reduction Characteristics of Carbon Dioxide Using a Plasmatron

To decompose carbon dioxide, which is a representative greenhouse gas, a 3-phase gliding arc plasmatron device was designed and manufactured to examine the decomposition of CO₂, either alone or in the presence of methane with and without water vapour. The changes in the amount of carbon dioxide feed rate, the methane to carbon dioxide ratio, the steam to carbon dioxide ratio, and the methane to steam ratio were used as the parameters. The carbon dioxide conversion rate, energy decomposition efficiency (EDE), carbon monoxide and hydrogen selectivity, and produced gas concentration were also investigated. The maximum values of the carbon dioxide conversion rate, which is a key indicator of carbon dioxide decomposition, in different cases were compared. The maximum carbon dioxide conversion rate was 12.3 % when pure carbon dioxide was supplied; 34.5 % when methane was injected as a reforming additive; 7.8 % when steam was injected as a reforming additive; and 43 % when methane and steam were injected together. Therefore, this could be explained that the methane-and-steam injection showed the highest carbon dioxide decomposition, showing low EDE as 0.01 L/min W. Furthermore, the plasma produced carbon-black was compared with commercial carbon-black chemicals through Raman spectroscopy, surface area measurement and scanning electron microscopy. It was found that the carbon-black that was produced in this study has the high conductivity and large specific surface area. Our product makes it suitable for special electric materials and secondary battery materials applications.     

Ni取代六铝酸镧催化剂LaNiAl_(11)O_(19)表面积炭研究

通过 TEM、XPS、TGA、TPR-CO2 技术 ,对在 Ni取代六铝酸镧催化剂 La Ni Al1 1 O1 9表面上的甲烷裂解积炭、甲烷二氧化碳重整积炭及二氧化碳的消炭行为进行了研究 ,以探索该催化剂表面积炭形貌、来源、积炭物种以及积炭活性 .结果表明 ,甲烷具有相当高的裂解积炭活性 ,裂解后生成炭化物 ( carbide炭 )和石墨炭两种不同活性的炭种 ;二氧化碳的解离活性则相对较低 ,但其消除催化剂表面积炭活性却相当高     

Fixed-bed adsorption of carbon dioxide/methane mixtures on silicalite pellets

The adsorption of carbon dioxide and methane on silicalite pellets packed on a fixed bed has been studied. Equilibrium and kinetic measurements of the adsorption of carbon dioxide and methane have been performed, and a binary adsorption isotherm for carbon dioxide/methane mixtures has been obtained. A model based on the LDF approximation for the mass transfer has been used to describe the breakthrough curves obtained experimentally. A PSA cycle has been proposed for obtaining methane with purity higher than 98% from carbon dioxide/methane mixtures containing 38% and 50% methane, and its performance has been simulated using the proposed model. The simulation results show that silicalite can be a suitable adsorbent for employment in a PSA separation process for carbon dioxide removal from coalseam and landfill gases.     

An experimental and molecular simulation study of the adsorption of carbon dioxide and methane in nanoporous carbons in the presence of water

The adsorption of carbon dioxide and methane in nanoporous carbons in the presence of water is studied using experiments and molecular simulations. For all amounts of adsorbed water molecules, the adsorption isotherms for carbon dioxide and methane resemble those obtained for pure fluids. The pore filling mechanism does not seem to be affected by the presence of the water molecules. Moreover, the pressure at which the maximum adsorbed amount of methane or carbon dioxide is reached is nearly insensitive to the loading of preadsorbed water molecules. In contrast, the adsorbed amount of methane or carbon dioxide decreases linearly with the number of guest water molecules. Typical molecular configurations obtained using molecular simulation indicate that the water molecules form isolated clusters within the host porous carbon due to the nonfavorable interaction between carbon dioxide or methane and water.     

Adsorption and diffusion of nitrogen, methane and carbon dioxide in aluminophosphate molecular sieve AlPO4-11

The knowledge about the adsorption and diffusion properties (specially about diffusion) of aluminophosphate molecular sieves is very scarce in the literature. These materials offer interesting properties as adsorbents as they have a polar framework and do not contain charge-balancing cations. In this work, the adsorption isotherms of nitrogen, methane and carbon dioxide over an AlPO₄-11 sample synthesized in our laboratories have been measured with a volumetric method at 25, 35, 50 and 65 °C over a pressure range up to 110 kPa. The adsorption capacities of each gas are determined by the strength of interaction with the pore surface (carbon dioxide > methane > nitrogen). The equilibrium selectivity to carbon dioxide is quite high with respect to other adsorbents without cations due to the polarity of the aluminophosphate framework. The adsorption Henry’s law constants and diffusion time constants of nitrogen, methane and carbon dioxide in the synthesized AlPO₄-11 material have been measured from pulse experiments. A pressure swing adsorption (PSA) process for recovering methane from a carbon dioxide/methane mixture (resembling biogas) has been designed using a dynamic model where the measured adsorption equilibrium and kinetic information has been incorporated. The simulation results show that the proposed process could be simpler than other PSA processes for biogas upgrading based on cation-containing molecular sieves such as 13X zeolite, as it can treat the biogas at atmospheric pressure, and it requires a lower pressure ratio, to produce high purity methane with high recovery.     

Development of a new gas sensor for binary mixtures based on the permselectivity of polymeric membranes: Application to carbon dioxide/methane and carbon dioxide/helium mixtures

Membrane-based gas sensors were developed and used for determining the composition on bi-component mixtures in the 0-100% range, such as oxygen/nitrogen and carbon dioxide/methane (biogas). These sensors are low cost and are aimed at a low/medium precision market.The paper describes the use of this sensor for two gas mixtures: carbon dioxide/methane and carbon dioxide/helium. The membranes used are poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) and Teflon-AF hollow fibers. The response curves for both sensors were obtained at three different temperatures. The results clearly indicate that the permeate pressure of the sensors relates to the gas mixture composition at a given temperature. The data is represented by a third order polynomial. The sensors enable quantitative carbon dioxide analysis in binary mixtures with methane or helium. The response of the sensors is fast (less than 50 s), continuous, reproducible and long-term stable over a period of 2.3×10⁷ s (9 months). The absolute sensitivity of the sensors depends on the carbon dioxide feed concentration ranging from 0.03 to 0.13 MPa.     

煤和生物质共气化制备富氢气体的实验研究

在煤处理量为8kg/h的小型流化床反应器上,以富氧空气和水蒸气为气化介质,对煤和生物质共气化制取富氢燃气进行了实验研究。在850℃～1 050℃主要考察了空气当量比、水碳比、生物质比例和生物质种类对燃气组成和气体产率的影响。结果表明,对煤和稻草混合体系,稻草质量比为33%时,空气当量比增加,CO2含量显著增加,H2、CO和CH4含量减少,气体产率增加;水碳比增加,CO2和CH4含量增加,CO和H2含量减小,气体产率先增加后减小;生物质比例增加,CO2、H2和CH4含量增加,CO含量降低,气体产率先增加后减小,当生物质比例小于50%时,可以实现体系的稳定运行。对于三种不同的煤与生物质混合体系,煤与高粱秆共气化所得煤气中H2含量最高,气体产率的顺序为:煤/木屑煤/高粱秆煤/稻草煤。实验中H2在煤气中的体积分数最高可达37.25%,最大产率为0.54m3/kg。     

甲烷氧化细菌催化二氧化碳生物合成甲醇的研究

甲烷氧化细菌中包含的甲烷单加氧酶(MMO)、甲醇脱氢酶(ADH)、甲醛脱氢酶(FaldDH)、甲酸脱氢酶(FateDH)经过一系列反应能够把甲烷深度氧化生成二氧化碳，并生成一定的能量物质．把二氧化碳还原为甲醇是一个需要能量的过程，目前还没有已知的有机体在温和条件下完成这一反应．研究发现，甲基弯菌Methylosi-nus trichosporium IMV 3011可以催化二氧化碳生物转化生成甲醇．在休眠的悬浮细胞中充人二氧化碳后，反应一段时间在反应液中检测到了甲醇．二氧化碳转化成甲醇是一个需要能量推动的反应，为了补充反应所消耗的能量．反应一段时间后需要用甲烷进行再生，以恢复细胞中的还原当量NADH．我们进行了反应再生的交替连续批式反应，甲醇积累量能够维持在一个比较稳定的水平．理论上，反应不会增加温室效应，这是一个有效的、环境友好的、可恢复的反应过程．     

Reforming of Carbon Dioxide to Methane and Methanol by Electric Impulse Low-Pressure Discharge with Hydrogen

Basic phenomena of the reduction of carbon dioxide to reusable organic materials including methane and methanol were investigated by using a radio frequency impulse discharge in a low gas pressure range without catalysis. The discharge took place under different discharge parameters such as voltage, gas flow rate, gas-mixing ratio, and gas residence time, where the carbon dioxide was mixed with hydrogen at total gas pressure of 1–10 Torr. Organic materials such as methane and methanol were observed. Carbon monoxide was a major product from carbon dioxide. Methane was the dominant organic species produced by the discharge. The concentration of methane increased with discharge voltage, and its volume fraction attained 10–20% of the products containing carbon that came from carbon dioxide. This fraction was also dependent on the mixing ratio of carbon dioxide and hydrogen. We also observed the formation of methanol, though its fraction was low, a few %, compared with methane.     

Effects of CO2 content on the activity and stability of nickel catalyst supported on mesoporous nanocrystalline zirconia

The effects of carbon dioxide content on the catalytic performance and coke formation of nickel catalyst supported on mesoporous nanocrystalline zirconia with high surface area and pure tetragonal crystalline phase were investigated in methane reforming with carbon dioxide. The samples were characterized by XRD, BET, TPR, TPO, TPH, TEM, and SEM techniques. The catalyst prepared showed high surface area and a mesoporous structure with a narrow pore size distribution. The obtained results revealed that the increase in CO2 content increased the methane conversion and stability of the catalyst and significantly reduced the coke deposition. The TPH analysis showed that several species of carbon with different reactivities toward hydrogenation were deposited on the spent catalysts employed under different CO2 contents.     

Starch-Enhanced Synthesis of Oxygenates from Methane and Carbon Dioxide Using Dielectric-Barrier Discharges

In this work, starch has been used to enhance the oxygenate formation directly from methane and carbon dioxide using dielectric-barrier discharges (DBDs). The use of starch inhibits the formation of liquid hydrocarbons and significantly increases the selectivity of oxygenates. Oxygenates produced include primarily formaldehyde, methanol, ethanol, formic acid, and acetic acid. The total selectivity is about 10–40% with conversion of methane and carbon dioxide of about 20%. Lower methane feed concentration favors the production of oxygenates, and higher feed flow rate leads to higher selectivity of oxygenates in the presence of starch.     

Calculation of Density for Mixtures of Carbon Dioxide with Nitrogen and Methane from the ISM Equation of State

In this paper the analytical equation of state (EoS) proposed by Ihm‐Song‐Mason was applied to calculate molar volume of mixtures of carbon dioxide with nitrogen and methane. The pair interaction potential has been used to evaluate the second virial coefficients and the ISM EoS parameters (i.e. α and b). The calculated values of the aforesaid quantities were applied to predict the molar volumes for mixtures of carbon dioxide with nitrogen and methane. Agreement with experiment was excellent for both mixtures.     

Separation of carbon dioxide/methane mixtures by adsorption on a basic resin

In this work, the separation of carbon dioxide/methane mixtures by PSA using a basic resin (Amberlite IRA-900) has been studied. Adsorption equilibrium and kinetics of carbon dioxide and methane on a fixed-bed of this adsorbent have been measured, and a binary adsorption equilibrium isotherm has been obtained. The adsorbent deactivation with the number of adsorption-desorption cycles, and its regeneration, have also been analysed. A model based on the LDF approximation has been used to describe the experimental breakthrough curves. The applicability of the basic resin to the separation of carbon dioxide/methane mixtures has been studied in an experimental PSA setup using a single bed. The validity of the model used in the fixed-bed study for simulating a PSA system has been checked by comparing the simulated and the experimental performance of the proposed PSA cycle.     

MCM-41 Supported Nickel Catalysts for Carbon Dioxide Reforming of Methane

There has been an increasing interest in the conversion of methane and carbon dioxide into synthesis gas^[1]. High performance Ni-based catalysts have attracted much attention^[2-4]. In this study, MCM-41 supported nickel were used as catalysts for carbon dioxide reforming of methane. It is found that the obtained catalyst exhibited high activity for getting syngas with its ratio of unity.In contrast to the performance of other nickel-based catalysts; Ni/MCM-41 has higher conversion and yield at lower temperature. The effects of nickel loading, particle size, GHSV, and calcination temperature on catalytic activities were also investigated.     

Diffusion of methane and carbon dioxide in carbon molecular sieve membranes by multinuclear pulsed field gradient NMR

Carbon molecular sieve (CMS) membranes are promising materials for energy efficient separations of light gases. In this work, we report a detailed microscopic study of carbon dioxide and methane self-diffusion in three CMS membrane derived from 6FDA/BPDA(1:1)-DAM and Matrimid polymers. In addition to diffusion of one-component sorbates, diffusion of a carbon dioxide/methane mixture was investigated. Self-diffusion studies were performed by the multinuclear (i.e., (1)H and (13)C) pulsed field gradient (PFG) NMR technique which combines the advantages of high field (17.6 T) NMR and high magnetic field gradients (up to 30 T/m). Diffusion measurements were carried out at different temperatures and for a broad range of the root-mean-square displacements of gas molecules inside the membranes. The diffusion data obtained from PFG NMR are compared with the corresponding results of membrane permeation measurements reported previously for the same membrane types. The observed differences between the transport diffusivities and self-diffusion coefficients of carbon dioxide and methane are discussed.     

A Study on the Kinetics of the Catalytic Reforming Reaction of CH4 with CO2： Determination of the Reaction Order

The kinetics of the catalytic reforming reaction of methane with carbon dioxide to produce synthesis gas on a Ni/(α-A1203 and a HSD-2 type commercial catalyst has been studied. The results indicate that the reaction orders are one and zero for methane and carbon dioxide, respectively, when the carbon dioxide partial pressure was about 12.5-30.0 kPa and the temperature was at 1123-1173 K. However, when the carbon dioxide partial pressure was changed to 30.0-45.0 kPa under the same temperature range of 1123-1173 K, the reaction orders of methane and carbon dioxide are one. Furthermore, average rate constants at different temperatures were determined.     

Fe-Containing Intermetallic Compounds As Catalysts of Methane Conversion with Carbon Dioxide

Systems based on iron and aluminum were studied in methane conversion with carbon dioxide. The systems were prepared by the method of self-propagating high-temperature synthesis. Massive iron did not exhibit noticeable catalytic activity in methane conversion with carbon dioxide. The deactivation of iron-containing intermetallic compounds was shown to occur because of the formation of the FeC and FeO phases, which screened the active centers of the catalyst surface. The suggestion was made that the active center of the dissociative adsorption of methane was the γ-Fe phase, which existed at the working temperature of methane conversion with carbon dioxide.     

Free energies of carbon dioxide sequestration and methane recovery in clathrate hydrates

Classical molecular dynamics simulations are used to compare the stability of methane, carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and mixed CO(2)N(2) structure I (sI) clathrates under deep ocean seafloor temperature and pressure conditions (275 K and 30 MPa) which were considered suitable for CO(2) sequestration. Substitution of methane guests in both the small and large sI cages by CO(2) and N(2) fluids are considered separately to determine the separate contributions to the overall free energy of substitution. The structure I clathrate with methane in small cages and carbon dioxide in large cages is determined to be the most stable. Substitutions of methane in the small cages with CO(2) and N(2) have positive free energies. Substitution of methane with CO(2) in the large cages has a large negative free energy and substitution of the methane in the large cages with N(2) has a small positive free energy. The calculations show that under conditions where storage is being considered, carbon dioxide spontaneously replaces methane from sI clathrates, causing the release of methane. This process must be considered if there are methane clathrates present where CO(2) sequestration is to be attempted. The calculations also indicate that N(2) does not directly compete with CO(2) during methane substitution or clathrate formation and therefore can be used as a carrier gas or may be present as an impurity. Simulations further reveal that the replacement of methane with CO(2) in structure II (sII) cages also has a negative free energy. In cases where sII CO(2) clathrates are formed, only single occupancy of the large cages will be observed.