Spanning the molecular to industrial scale of the adsorption-based separation of CO2/CH4 by MIL-160(Al)

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Bordonhos, Marta and Neves, Maria Inês Severino and Marandi, Afsaneh and Nouar, Farid and Jorge, Miguel and Gomes, José R.B. and Serre, Christian and Pinto, Moisés L. (2025) Spanning the molecular to industrial scale of the adsorption-based separation of CO2/CH4 by MIL-160(Al). Chemical Engineering Journal, 524. 169276. ISSN 1385-8947 (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cej.2025.169276)

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Abstract

The microporous bioderived MIL-160(Al) MOF has been investigated for CO₂/CH₄ separation in the context of biogas upgrading, by complementary experimental and computational studies, from the molecular to the industrial process levels. MIL-160(Al) has been synthesised and shaped into beads using silica, without loss of adsorption performance, beyond the expected loss in adsorption capacity due to the presence of nonporous silica. Experimental and GCMC-simulated adsorption isotherms for pure CO2 and CH4 align closely, validating the strategies used. The latter have been extended to binary CO2:CH4 mixtures, with results cross-validated with IAST. A detailed model has been developed in Aspen Adsorption that uses the LDF approach to describe adsorption kinetics, and the Extended Virial isotherm for multicomponent equilibrium, achieving close agreement between simulation and experimental results. Industrial PSA/VPSA process simulations based on the classic 2-bed, 4-step Skarstrom cycle and the validated model have shown the VPSA process offers better CH4 recovery (ca. 82 vs. 52 %) and similar unit energy consumption when compared to the PSA process (ca. 12 vs. 11 Wh · mol-1CH4,Prod), despite having higher raw energy requirements due to vacuum regeneration (ca. 92 vs. 33 kWh per cycle). Considering only electricity, a main operation cost factor, the operation cost for the VPSA process is ca. 98 €·t-1Upgraded biogas, which gives an estimated economic return of ca. 725 €·t-1Upgraded biogas, based on the price of natural gas. Consequently, VPSA emerges as a promising industrial-scale process for biogas upgrading with MIL-160(Al) as a promising new adsorbent.

ORCID iDs

Bordonhos, Marta, Neves, Maria Inês Severino, Marandi, Afsaneh, Nouar, Farid, Jorge, Miguel ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3009-4725, Gomes, José R.B., Serre, Christian and Pinto, Moisés L.;
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)