Assessment of industrial waste for adsorption and capture of CO2: Dynamic and static capture system

Abstract

The increasing generation and accumulation of waste derived from production and consumption activities constitute a severe social and environmental problem. Industrial waste from the glass industry, with SiO2 (WSi) and Al2O3 (WAl) high content, were studied as materials for CO2 capture in stationary and dynamic systems. These were characterized by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Energy Dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), N2 adsorption-desorption isotherms accompanied BET (Brunauer-Emmett-Teller) analysis, X-ray diffraction (XRD), and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR). Adsorbed CO2 (mmol) was measured using the gas measurement technique in FTIR. In all tests, the WSi residue had a higher adsorption capacity than the WAl. The adsorption capacity obtained was 0.97 mmol CO2 g-1 at 20 °C and 16% CO2 in a dynamic system for WSi. The effect of temperature and CO2 concentration on the retention capacity of both wastes was analyzed. Three models were used to evaluate the kinetic behaviour as a function of the temperature of the test. The results indicate that under conditions of 16% vol CO2 and 20 °C, the pseudo-first order model is the one that best fits. The saturation time of the materials was around 10 min. Simulated CO2 streams and real gas samples were tested. Real gas samples were extracted from gaseous streams from the combustion of flour mill and beer wastes production. CO2 retention is evidenced; however, the capture capacity was higher in WSi, about 63%, compared to 30% for WAl. The wastes have good efficiency in the CO2 capture and high yield in the successive uses. The application of these waste materials for CO2 capture provides advantages in terms of decrease waste pretreatment costs, a technological solution for the disposal of the abundant glass industry residue, efficient CO2 capture under different conditions and an approximation to use in real systems.