Adsorption of carbon dioxide, ethane, and methane on titanosilicate type molecular sieves

The separation of carbon dioxide from light hydrocarbons is a vital step in multiple industrial processes that could be achieved by pressure swing adsorption (PSA), if appropriate adsorbents could be identified. To compare candidate PSA adsorbents, carbon dioxide, methane, and ethane adsorption isotherms were measured for cation exchanged forms of the titanosilicate molecular sieves ETS-10, ETS-4, and RPZ. Mixed cation forms, such as Ba/H-ETS-10, may offer appropriate stability, selectivity, and swing capacity to be utilized as adsorbents in CO2/CH4 PSA processes. Certain cation exchanged forms of ETS-4 were found to partially or completely exclude ethane by size, and equivalent RPZ materials were observed to exclude both methane and ethane, while allowing carbon dioxide to be substantially adsorbed. Adsorbents such as Ca/H-ETS-4 and Ca/H-RPZ are strong candidates for use in PSA separation processes for both CO2/C2H6 and CO2/CH4, potentially replacing current amine scrubber systems. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.