Robust Immobilized Amine CO₂ Sorbent Pellets Utilizing a Poly(Chloroprene) Polymer Binder and Fly Ash Additive

Abstract

Abstract Pelletization of ca. 50 wt % amine/silica carbon dioxide sorbents was achieved with the novel combination of fly ash (FA) as a strength additive and hydrophobic poly(chloroprene) (PC) as a binder. The PC content and overall synthesis procedure of these materials were optimized to produce pellets, labeled as FA/E100‐S_(20/80)_12.2, with the highest ball‐mill attrition resistance (<0.5 wt % by fines, 24 h) and maximum CO 2 capture capacity of 1.78 mmol CO 2 g −1 . The strength of the pellets was attributed to hydrogen‐bonding of the relatively homogeneous PC network with the interlocked FA and BIAS particles (DRIFTS, SEM‐EDS). The low degradation of 3–4 % in the pellet's CO 2 capture capacity under both dry TGA (7.5 h) and practical fixed‐bed (6.5 h dry; 4.5 h humid,≈5 vol % H 2 O) CO 2 adsorption–desorption conditions highlights the pellet's excellent cyclic stability. These robust pellet characteristics make PC/FA/sorbent materials promising for commercial scale, point‐source CO 2 capture.