Adsorption separation of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrogen on monoethanol amine modified β-zeolite

A new type of composite adsorbents was synthesized by incorporating monoethanol amine (MEA) into β-zeolite. The parent and MEA-functionalized β-zeolites were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), N2 adsorption, and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The adsorption behavior of carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), and nitrogen (N2) on these adsorbents was investigated at 303 K. The results show that the structure of zeolite was well preserved after MEA modification. In comparison with CH4 and N2, CO2 was preferentially adsorbed on the adsorbents investigated. The introduction of MEA significantly improved the selectivity of both CO2/CH4 and CO2/N2, the optimal selectivity of CO2/CH4 can reach 7.70 on 40 wt% of MEA-functionalized β-zeolite (MEA(40)-β) at 1 atm. It is worth noticing that a very high selectivity of CO2/N2 of 25.67 was obtained on MEA(40)-β. Steric effect and chemical adsorbate-adsorbent interaction were responsible for such high adsorption selectivity of CO2. The present MEA-functionalized β-zeolite adsorbents may be a good candidate for applications in flue gas separation, as well as natural gas and landfill gas purifications.