Enhanced Adsorption of Carbon Dioxide from Simulated Biogas on PEI/MEA-Functionalized Silica

A series of efficient adsorbents were prepared by a wet-impregnation method for CO2 separation from simulated biogas. A type of commercially available silica, named as FNG-II silica (FS), was selected as supports. FS was modified with a mixture of polyethyleneimine (PEI) and ethanolamine (MEA) to improve the initial CO2 adsorption capacity and thermal stability of the adsorbents. The influence of different adsorbents on CO2 adsorption performance was investigated by breakthrough experiments. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and N2 adsorption–desorption isotherm were used to characterize the silica before and after impregnating amine. Additionally, the thermal stability of adsorbents was measured by differential thermal analysis (TDA). Silica impregnated with mixtures of MEA and PEI showed increased CO2 adsorption performance and high thermal stability compared with those obtained from silica impregnated solely with MEA or PEI. With a simulated biogas flow rate of 100 mL/min at 0.2 MPa and 25 °C, FS-10%MEA-10%PEI exhibited a CO2 adsorption capacity of ca. 64.68 mg/g which increased by 81 % in comparison to FS-20%PEI. The thermal stability of FS-10%MEA-10%PEI was evidently higher than that of FS-20%MEA, and a further improvement of thermal stability was achieved with the increasing value of PEI/MEA weight ratio. It was showed that MEA was able to impose a synergistic effect on the dispersion of PEI in the support, reduce the CO2 diffusion resistance and thus increase CO2 adsorption performance. Additionally, if the total percentage of amine was the same, FS impregnated by different ratios of PEI to MEA did not exhibit an obvious difference in CO2 adsorption performance. FS-15%PEI-5%MEA could be regenerated under mild conditions without obvious loss of CO2 adsorption activity.