Abstract:
Piperazine acetyl biopolymer (PABP), a new solid sorbent potentially used for CO2 capture from industrial flue gases was synthesized by attaching chloroacetyl chloride linkage group to purified biopolymer (BP). Piperazine (PZ) was then used to functionalize so that the BP acquired amino groups essential for capturing CO2. The maximum degree of PZ substitution obtained for PABP was 22 %. Purified BP was initially used to determine the optimal conditions for CO2 adsorption and desorption which were also tested later on PABP. Adsorption was found the most effective using initially pre-treatment of the BP with wet N2 gas prior to adsorption with dry CO2 feed at 298 K. Desorption capacity yielded the best result at 403 K. CO2 desorption capacity was found to decrease when the BP was repeatedly used (i.e. 2 adsorption-desorption cycles). With the optimal conditions, PABP adsorption capacity was 0.1441 mmol/g adsorbent as opposed to 0.2211 mmol/g adsorbent when dry N 2pretreatment at 378 K was used. Copyright © 2012, AIDIC Servizi S.r.l.