DESIGN OF STRUCTURED ADSORBENTS FOR APLICATIONS IN GAS ADSORPTION PROCESSES - CONVENTIONAL SHAPING vs 3D-PRINTED FORMULATION

摘要

Microporous materials highly activated and with potential to be used as adsorbents in many applications for gas separation/purification are usually available as powders. These solids usually have a great and reversible gas uptake, high gas selectivity, good chemical and thermal stability, but are unsuitable to be used in gas adsorption processes, such as Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) or Simulated Moving Bed (SMB). Zeolites, carbons and more recently metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are examples of those materials. Their use in adsorption-based processes are dependent of their upgrading from powders (micrometer scale) to particles (pellets, spheres or granules at millimeter scale). This would overcome large pressure drops and consequent energy consumptions when packing adsorbent columns in those processes. Thus, shaping adsorbents is an important step to use them in industry, although it greatly affects their capacity and selectivity towards a specific gas separation.