Adsorption of CO2, CH4, and N2 in Activated Carbon Honeycomb Monolith

Biomethane generated from renewable sources can be used as a renewable fuel to achieve ambitious targets for biofuels. The development of adsorption-based technologies for purification of biogas requires knowledge of adsorption equilibria and kinetics of pure gases on a specific adsorbent material. In this work, we have measured adsorption equilibria of CO2, CH4, and NZ at (299, 323, 348, 373, and 423) K over a pressure range between (0 and 700) kPa on a carbon honeycomb monolith. The adsorption capacity of the activated carbon honeycomb monolith was CO2 > CH4 > N-2. The multisite Langmuir model was employed to fit the data of the pure gases offering the possibility of direct prediction of multicomponent adsorption equilibria. The diffusion of single gases in the microporous structure of the activated carbon honeycomb monolith was studied by diluted breakthrough experiments. The experiments were performed over the same temperature range [(303 to 423) K]. A simplified 1D mathematical model was employed in the description of the adsorption phenomenon. The data reported in this work allows modeling of adsorption processes such as pressure swing adsorption (PSA) and temperature swing adsorption (TSA).