TY - JOUR
T1 - Fe-mordenite for high-performance N2 rejection
AU - Yu, Zhi
AU - Yang, Jianing
AU - Hesam Mousavi, Seyed
AU - Xiao, Penny
AU - Yan, Xue
AU - Zavabeti, Ali
AU - Wang, Yongqiang
AU - Chen, Kaifei
AU - Jefferson Liu, Zhe
AU - Hu, Guoping
AU - Liu, Xiaoling
AU - Zhou, Yu
AU - Webley, Paul A.
AU - Kevin Li, Gang
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2024
PY - 2024/11/15
Y1 - 2024/11/15
N2 - Nitrogen (N2) rejection holds great significance in natural gas industry. However, it is challenging due to the similarities in chemical and physical properties between N2 and methane (CH4), making it crucial to find N2-selective materials. Here, we report on Fe-mordenite (Fe-MOR), a modified zeolite with remarkable N2/CH4 separation performance, achieving a high N2 uptake of 0.85 mmol/g at atmospheric conditions with a non-equilibrium N2/CH4 selectivity of 6.9. Due to the much slower CH4 adsorption kinetics, the N2/CH4 kinetic selectivity is as high as 49.8. This kinetic difference was supported by density functional theory calculations, suggesting a higher energy barrier passing through Fe-containing channels for CH4 than for N2. The potential of Fe-MOR was manifested through pressure swing adsorption processes, achieving 99.1 % CH4 purity and 94.9 % CH4 recovery from a 10:90 N2/CH4 feed mixture. The corresponding energy consumption using this process for nitrogen rejection is only 10 % of that by cryogenic distillation.
AB - Nitrogen (N2) rejection holds great significance in natural gas industry. However, it is challenging due to the similarities in chemical and physical properties between N2 and methane (CH4), making it crucial to find N2-selective materials. Here, we report on Fe-mordenite (Fe-MOR), a modified zeolite with remarkable N2/CH4 separation performance, achieving a high N2 uptake of 0.85 mmol/g at atmospheric conditions with a non-equilibrium N2/CH4 selectivity of 6.9. Due to the much slower CH4 adsorption kinetics, the N2/CH4 kinetic selectivity is as high as 49.8. This kinetic difference was supported by density functional theory calculations, suggesting a higher energy barrier passing through Fe-containing channels for CH4 than for N2. The potential of Fe-MOR was manifested through pressure swing adsorption processes, achieving 99.1 % CH4 purity and 94.9 % CH4 recovery from a 10:90 N2/CH4 feed mixture. The corresponding energy consumption using this process for nitrogen rejection is only 10 % of that by cryogenic distillation.
KW - Fe-mordenite zeolite
KW - Kinetic difference
KW - N-selective material
KW - N/CH separation
KW - Pressure swing adsorption
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85207804058&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.cej.2024.157224
DO - 10.1016/j.cej.2024.157224
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85207804058
SN - 1385-8947
VL - 500
JO - Chemical Engineering Journal
JF - Chemical Engineering Journal
M1 - 157224
ER -