Amine-immobilized HY zeolite for CO2 capture from hot flue gas

Solid amine-based adsorbents were widely studied as an alternative to liquid amine for post-combustion CO₂ capture (PCC). However, most of the amine adsorbents suffer from low thermal stability and poor cyclic regenerability at the temperature of hot flue gases. Here we present an amine loaded proton type Y zeolite (HY) where the amines namely monoethanolamine (MEA) and ethylenediamine (ED) are chemical immobilized via ionic bond to the zeolite framework to overcome the amine degradation problem. The MEA and ED of 5%, 10% and 20% (mass) concentration – immobilized zeolites were characterized by X-ray diffraction, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, and N₂ -196 ℃ adsorption to confirm the structure integrity, amine functionalization, and surface area, respectively. The determination of the amine loading was given by C, H, N elemental analysis showing that ED has successfully grafted almost twice as many amino groups as MEA within the same solvent concentration. CO₂ adsorption capacity and thermal stability of these samples were measured using thermogravimetric analyser. The adsorption performance was tested at the adsorption temperature of 30, 60 and 90 ℃, respectively using pure CO₂ while the desorption was carried out with pure N₂ purge at the same temperature and then followed by elevated temperature at 150 ℃. It was found that all the amine@HY have a substantial high selectivity of CO₂ over N₂. The sample 20% ED@HY has the highest CO₂ adsorption capacity of 1.76 mmol·g^-1 at 90 ℃ higher than the capacity on parent NaY zeolite (1.45 mmol·g^-1 only). The amine@HY samples presented superior performance in cyclic thermal stability in the condition of the adsorption temperature of 90 ℃ and the desorption temperature of 150 ℃. These findings will foster the design of better adsorbents for CO₂ capture from flue gas in post-combustion power plants.