Enhancement of carbon dioxide capture by amine‐modified rice husk mesoporous material

Abstract

Carbon dioxide capture and sequestration (CCS) has become a promising mitigation measure to reduce carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions from large stationary point sources. The CO 2 capture process is the core limitation in terms of operating costs and energy consumption. To address this problem, this work aims to produce low cost solid sorbents for capturing CO 2 . Rice husk was used as a silica source for Mobil Composition of Matter No. 41 (MCM‐41) synthesis (called R‐MCM‐41). To enhance the CO 2 adsorption performance at a high temperature, polyethyleneimine (PEI), monoethanolamine (MEA), and aniline (ANL) were applied as modification reagents onto the R‐MCM‐41 surface. The adsorption test was conducted by using an adsorption column. The results indicated that the adsorption capacity of R‐MCM‐41 decreased with an increase in adsorption temperature. However, amine modification can enhance the adsorption capacity at high adsorption temperatures. Out of all the materials tested, the R‐MCM‐41 impregnated with 50 wt % of PEI provided the highest adsorption capacity at 1.70 mmol g −1 . © 2016 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Environ Prog, 35: 1716–1723, 2016