Improving methane storage on wet activated carbons at various amounts of water

Different mesoporous activated carbons were prepared by both chemical and physical activation processes and were examined for methane uptake in the presence of water.Methane isotherms were obtained at wet condition by wetting samples with water at mass ratio of water/carbon(R) close to 1.0.To compare,the amount of methane storage were also measured at dry situation.The maximum amount of methane stored was attained as 237 V/V at R=1.0 by hydrate formation at the methane critical pressure.In the next step,mass ratios of water/carbon were changed to investigate various amount of water for methane storage enhancement.Two other values of mass ratio of water/carbon(R=0.8 and 1.4) were selected and methane isotherms were obtained at the same conditions.Maximum values of 210 and 248 V/V were reached for methane storage,respectively.It was also observed that,in the pressure range lower than hydrate pressure,by increasing water ratio the hydrate formation pressure was decreased and methane uptake was much less than that of dry condition due to pore filling by water.

Mass transfer investigation and operational sensitivity analysis of aminebased industrial CO_2 capture plant

In this article, the industrial process of CO_2 capture using monoethanolamine as an aqueous solvent was probed carefully from the mass transfer viewpoint. The simulation of this process was done using Rate-Base model, based on two-film theory. The results were validated against real plant data. Compared to the operational unit, the error of calculating absorption percentage and CO_2 loading was estimated around 2%. The liquid temperature profiles calculated by the model agree well with the real temperature along the absorption tower, emphasizing the accuracy of this model. Operational sensitivity analysis of absorption tower was also done with the aim of determining sensitive parameters for the optimized design of absorption tower and optimized operational conditions. Hence,the sensitivity analysis was done for the flow rate of gas, the flow rate of solvent, flue gas temperature, inlet solvent temperature, CO_2 concentration in the flue gas, loading of inlet solvent, and MEA concentration in the solvent. CO_2 absorption percentage, the profile of loading, liquid temperature profile and finally profile of CO_2 mole fraction in gas phase along the absorption tower were studied. To elaborate mass transfer phenomena, enhancement factor, interfacial area, molar flux and liquid hold up were probed. The results show that regarding the CO_2 absorption, the most important parameter was the gas flow rate. Comparing liquid temperature profiles showed that the most important parameter affecting the temperature of the rich solvent was MEA concentration.

Photocatalytic Synthesis of Gold Nanoparticles Using Preyssler Acid and Their Photocatalytic Activity

Preyssler acid H14[NaP5W30O110] was used as reducing agent and stabilizer for the synthesis of gold nanoparticles by photolysis of Au(III)/Preyssler acid/propan-2-ol solution.Preyssler acid plays both the role of transferring electrons from propan-2-ol to Au(III) and stabilizing the nanoparticles.Propan-2-ol was used as sacrificial reagent for the photoformation of reduced Preyssler acid.Gold nanoparticles (Au NPs) were characterized by UV-Vis spectroscopy,transmission electron microscopy (TEM),and particle size distribution (PSD) measurements.The synthesized Au NPs had a uniform hexagonal morphology and their size was about 17 nm.The catalytic performance of these NPs for photodegradation of methyl orange (MeO) was investigated in aqueous solution.UV-Vis studies showed that Au NPs can catalyze photodegradation of this azo dye.The pseudo-first-order rate constants were also calculated for this reaction.