Significant enhancement in CH4/N2 separation with amine-modified zeolite Y

Adsorption based process for CH 4 /N 2 separation is promising and attractive while it remains a challenge endeavor due to the lack of efficient adsorbents. In this work, amine ion-exchanged Y zeolites were developed for CH 4 /N 2 separation. By simple ion-exchanged with tetramethylammonium cation (TMA + ) and choline cation (Ch + ), CH 4 adsorption amounts of the resulting adsorbents were obviously increased while their N 2 adsorption amounts were significantly decreased. Consequently, CH 4 /N 2 separation performances of resulted samples were greatly improved compared to pristine NaY. CH 4 /N 2 selectivities of resulting sample TMAY and ChY were up to 6.32 and 6.50, respectively, at 25 °C and 100 kPa. Monte Carlo calculations were used to study the interaction affinity for CH 4 and N 2 on the adsorbents. Breakthrough experiments were further confirmed the excellent separation performances of TMAY and ChY. The excellent separation performances of the resulting adsorbents verified the efficiency of the simple ion-exchange strategy and the application potential of the adsorbents.