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High density and super ultra-microporous-activated carbon macrospheres with high volumetric capacity for CO2 capture

Liu, Jingjing; Liu, Xin; Sun, Yuan; Sun, Chenggong; Liu, Hao; Stevens, Lee A.; Li, Kaixi; Snape, Colin E.

High density and super ultra-microporous-activated carbon macrospheres with high volumetric capacity for CO2 capture Thumbnail


Authors

Jingjing Liu

Xin Liu

Yuan Sun

Chenggong Sun

HAO LIU LIU.HAO@NOTTINGHAM.AC.UK
Professor of Energy Engineering

LEE STEVENS LEE.STEVENS@NOTTINGHAM.AC.UK
Senior Research Fellow

Kaixi Li

COLIN SNAPE COLIN.SNAPE@NOTTINGHAM.AC.UK
Professor of Chemical Technology & Chemical Eng



Abstract

Activated carbon (AC) spheres with a diameter of 1.0–2.0 mm are synthesized from coal tar pitch for postcombustion carbon capture. The as-prepared AC macrospheres after KOH activation are found to possess extraordinarily developed microporosity of which 87% is ultra-microporosity with pore diameters less than 0.8 nm. Despite the relatively low surface area of just 714 m2 g−1 with a pore volume of 0.285 cm3 g−1, the macrospherical carbon adsorbents achieve exceedingly high CO2 uptake capacities of 3.15 and 1.86 mmol g−1 at 0 and 25 °C, respectively, with a CO2 partial pressure of 0.15 bar. Cyclic lifetime performance testing demonstrates that the CO2 uptake is fully reversible with fast adsorption and desorption kinetics. More importantly, due to their high bulk density of ≈1.0 g cm−3, the AC macrospheres exhibit extremely high volumetric CO2 uptakes of up to 81.8 g L−1 at 25 °C at 0.15 bar CO2, which represents the highest value ever reported for ACs. The high ultra-microporosity coupled with the potassium-modified physiochemical surface properties is found to be responsible for the outstanding CO2 adsorption performance of the pitch-based AC macrospheres.

Citation

Liu, J., Liu, X., Sun, Y., Sun, C., Liu, H., Stevens, L. A., …Snape, C. E. (in press). High density and super ultra-microporous-activated carbon macrospheres with high volumetric capacity for CO2 capture. Advanced Sustainable Systems, 2(2), https://doi.org/10.1002/adsu.201700115

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Oct 12, 2017
Online Publication Date Dec 18, 2017
Deposit Date Nov 24, 2017
Publicly Available Date Dec 18, 2017
Journal Advanced Sustainable Systems
Print ISSN 2366-7486
Electronic ISSN 2366-7486
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 2
Issue 2
DOI https://doi.org/10.1002/adsu.201700115
Keywords activated carbon; CO2 capture; solid adsorbent; ultra-microporous structure; volumetric CO2 capacity
Public URL https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/900437
Publisher URL http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/adsu.201700115/abstract
Contract Date Nov 24, 2017

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