Preparation of nanostructured activated alumina and hybrid alumina–silica by chemical precipitation for natural gas dehydration

•Production of activated alumina by a less expensive procedure.•Preparation of nanostructure activated alumina with high sorption capacity in low and high relative humidity for the first time.•Preparation of nanostructure activated alumina with ink-bottle pores (mesopore).•Production of the hybrid activated alumina.

In this study activated alumina nanostructure was prepared by precipitation method using aluminum chloride sol, aluminum nitrate and aluminum isobutanolate as a precursor at ambient temperature in the pH range of 10–11. The calcination of dried precipitation at 700 °C for 3 h produced activated gamma alumina with nanostructure (⩽10 nm). The nitrogen isothermal adsorption method was applied to measure the BET specific surface area, total pore volume and pore diameter. Microstructure and morphological analyses were carried out using X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Humidity sorption capacity of adsorbents measured with aqueous saturated salt solutions. Maximum sorption capacity at 10% and 60% relative humidity obtained 7.7% and 18.1%, respectively.

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