Polyethylenimine-Modified Zeolite 13X for CO2 Capture: Adsorption and Kinetic Studies

A class of high molecular weight polyethylenimine (PEI)-modified zeolite 13X adsorbents were synthesized by varying the concentration of imines and screened for preliminary investigation of CO2 capture studies. The impregnated molecular amine zeolite composite was characterized and CO2 adsorption performance was investigated through TGA in the presence of atmospheric pure CO2 gas at 25, 50, 75, and 100 degrees C, respectively, using 20-80 wt % of PEI-loaded zeolite 13X adsorbents. This paper reports on the effects of temperature and amine (PEI) loading on CO2 adsorption capacity and estimated kinetic parameters through modeling of selected models which represent the reaction rate and diffusion rate models. The studied adsorbents showed the highest adsorption capacity at 75 degrees C with 60 wt % PEI loading. Thus, the optimum temperature of 75 degrees C and optimal loading of 60 wt % was observed from the current studies for CO2 capture. From modeling study, it was found that Avrami's fractional order and dual kinetic models (DKM) described well the adsorption behavior of CO2 on PEI-impregnated zeolite 13X at all temperatures accurately and up to 75 degrees C, respectively. Besides, intraparticle diffusion was found to be the rate-limiting step when compared with the film diffusion model.