CO2 capture by adsorption with nitrogen enriched carbons

The success of CO₂ capture with solid sorbents is dependent on the development of a low cost sorbent with high CO₂ selectivity and adsorption capacity. Immobilised amines are expected to offer the benefits of liquid amines in the typical absorption process, with the added advantages that solids are easy to handle and that they do not give rise to corrosion problems. In this work, different alkylamines were evaluated as a potential source of basic sites for CO₂ capture, and a commercial activated carbon was used as a preliminary support in order to study the effect of the impregnation. The amine coating increased the basicity and nitrogen content of the carbon. However, it drastically reduced the microporous volume of the activated carbon, which is chiefly responsible for CO₂ physisorption, thus decreasing the capacity of raw carbon at room temperature.