Adsorption and separation of CO 2 /N 2 and CO 2 /CH 4 by 13X zeolite

Accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is responsible for increased global warming of our planet. The increasing concentration of carbon dioxide mainly from flue gas, automobile and landfill gas (LFG) emissions are major contributors to this problem. In this work, CO 2 , CH 4 and N 2 adsorption was studied on Ceca 13X zeolite by determining pure and binary mixture isotherms using a constant volume method and a concentration pulse chromatographic technique at 40 and 100°C. The experimental data were then compared to the predicted binary behaviour by extended Langmuir model. Results showed that the extended Langmuir theoretical adsorption model can only be applied as an approximation to predict the experimental binary behaviour for the systems studied. Equilibrium phase diagrams were obtained from the experimental binary isotherms. For these systems, the integral thermodynamic consistency tests were also conducted. It was found that Ceca 13X exhibits large CO 2 /CH 4 and CO 2 /N 2 selectivity and could find application in landfill gas purification, CO 2 removal from natural gas and CO 2 removal from ambient air or flue gas streams. © 2011 Canadian Society for Chemical Engineering