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Gaseous Mixtures Separation via Chemically-Activated Nano Silica-Modified Carbon Molecular Sieves

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Abstract

The goal of this research was to study the efficiency of the silica-modified, highly selective synthesized carbon molecular sieves for nitrogen separation in the methane purification process. For this purpose, carbon molecular sieves obtained from pistachio and walnut shells were impregnated in their raw form by means of phosphoric acid as an activator agent, and then cured with nano silica with different percentages. Calculations pointed out that impregnation ratio of activator agent and SiO2 concentration were influential on the adsorption rate and obviously has prevented the methane to get adsorbed. Maximum nitrogen adsorption was 8.8093 mM.g−1 which was the value related to the walnut shell sample with an impregnation ratio of 2:1 and SiO2 concentration equal to 1 w/w%, while minimum methane adsorption was observed to be 2.0129 mM.g−1 which was the value related to the pistachio-walnut shells mixed sample with an impregnation ratio equal to 4:1 and SiO2 concentration equal to 4 w/w%. The void volume of the micropores obtained from nitrogen adsorption was more than from methane. The walnut shell sample with an impregnation ratio of 4:1 demonstrated the highest selectivity equal to 2.1030 and was reported as the most proper sample in this study.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to express their sincere gratitude to the Financing Department of Raazi Environmental Protection Foundation, Iran Office, for their financial assistant provided to conduct this research. The funding is received from this department under Grant No. 9097SS07/02.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemical Engineering, North Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran

    Mahdie Ghazi-MirSaeed

  2. Research and Development Department, Division of Chemistry, Raazi Environmental Protection Foundation, Shiraz, Iran

    Sina Matavos-Aramyan

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  1. Mahdie Ghazi-MirSaeed
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  2. Sina Matavos-Aramyan
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Correspondence to Sina Matavos-Aramyan.

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Ghazi-MirSaeed, M., Matavos-Aramyan, S. Gaseous Mixtures Separation via Chemically-Activated Nano Silica-Modified Carbon Molecular Sieves. Silicon 13, 1331–1345 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12633-020-00529-8

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