DEVELOPMENT OF INEXPENSIVE CELLULOSE-BASED SORBENTS FOR CARBON DIOXIDE

Aqueous amine solutions arc benchmark solvents for CO2 capture and their operational drawbacks are well-known. In order to overcome these problems, the support of amines on solid materials appears as an option for CO2 capture. Cellulose is a versatile and low-cost material that can be used as a support. This study reports chemical modification of cellulose fibers extracted from rice husk with different amines and their potential for CO2 capture. The obtained compounds were characterized by different techniques. The CO2 sorption capacity was gravimctrically assessed in a Magnetic Suspension Balance. Quantum mechanical simulations and experimental results revealed that -NH- and -NH2 represent major working sites of the employed compounds. The best result for CO2 sorption was attained for the amine-modified cellulose CL-D-400 with a sorption capacity of 409 mu mol CO2/g at 1 bar and 1091 mu mol CO2/g at 10 bar with amine concentrations as low as 2 x 10(-6) mol/mg.