Thesis

Preparation and characterization of novel carbon material derived from resorcinol-formaldehyde xerogels for CO2 capture

Downloadable Content

Download PDF
Creator
Rights statement
Awarding institution
  • University of Strathclyde
Date of award
  • 2007
Thesis identifier
  • T11946
Qualification Level
Qualification Name
Department, School or Faculty
Abstract
  • Reducing atmospheric CO2, a main source of greenhouse gas, has been overemphasized recently. The primary sources of greenhouse gas emissions are the combustion of fossil fuels such as natural gas for the production of electricity purpose. The CO2 capture step is accounted for approximately 70-80 % of the expense for the overall CO2 capture and sequestration process. Since, the energy costs for CO2 separation greatly depend on the performance of the adsorbents. Therefore, it is important to develop new adsorbents to reduce the energy for CO2 separation. The principal aim of this work is to develop novel adsorbents derived from resorcinol formaldehyde xerogel that capable of operation at elevated temperature for more efficient CO2 capture by adsorption. In this work, resorcinol-formaldehyde (RF) carbon xerogels with high porosity and surface area have been synthesized via the sol-gel polycondensation reaction of resorcinol (R) with formaldehyde (F) in a slightly basic medium followed by drying and pyrolysis. The influences of selection the catalyst species and the catalyst ratios and other different parameters during synthesis have been investigated. The binary adsorption isotherms of the CO2/N2 system were measured using a modified gas chromatograph technique, the isotherm gradients are determined from the flow-rate and composition transient time, which are measured using a differential pressure transducer (DPT) and a thermal conductivity detector (TCD) respectively. The study demonstrates the potential of the surface chemistry of surface modified RF-carbon xerogels for the generation of efficient CO2 adsorbents, if their beneficial surface chemistry could be combined with advantageous pore structure. The regeneration of the samples was studied using temperature programming desorption-mass spectrometry (TPD-MS) technique. The decrease in the CO2 capture capacities upon regeneration was observed. The adsorptive capacity of regenerated carbon xerogel (after two cycles of regeneration) via CO2 capture loses approximately 7% compared to the adsorptive capacity of fresh one. While the CO2 capture capacities for the surface modified carbon xerogels RFC-MPDA30% (second regeneration cycle) and RFC-DPI30% (second regeneration cycle) lose about 12% and 8%.
Advisor / supervisor
  • Hall, Peter J.
  • Heslop, Mark J.
EThOS ID
  • uk.bl.ethos.882094

Relations

Items

Thumbnail Title Date Uploaded Visibility Actions
file details PDF of Thesis T11946 2026-02-05 Public Download