Dynamic nature of supercritical CO2 adsorption on coals

Abstract

Adsorption on non-rigid solids was shown to be a dynamic process. Excess adsorption and desorption isotherms of CO2 on eight Argonne Premium coal samples were measured at 55 °C and pressures up to 14 MPa by manometric method. The excess adsorption isotherms of CO2 on powdered coals showed almost Langmuir-like to rectilinear shape behavior at low pressures up to 9 MPa, and it increased noticeably at pressures higher than 9 MPa. There was a significant hysteresis between the excess adsorption and desorption isotherms for each rank of coals, which was related to the volumetric uncertainties occurring during the adsorption isotherm measurements. The parameters related to the adsorption capacity and micro porous characteristics of the coal were obtained at different pressure ranges by fitting the experimental data to the modified Dubinin-Astakhov (D-A) equation at the increasingly larger pressure ranges, using only the first 4 data points of the excess adsorption isotherm initially, and progressively using additional data points for the subsequent values. It was shown that the curve fit parameters vary with pressure, and therefore, concluded that the adsorption on non-rigid solids such as CO2 on coal is indeed a dynamic process. It was suggested that new adsorption isotherm equations need to be developed considering the dynamic nature of the adsorption on solid adsorbents.