Premodified Sepiolite Functionalized with Triethylenetetramine as an Effective and Inexpensive Adsorbent for CO₂ Capture

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In this work, industrial grade sepiolite (IG-SEP) was premodified with hydrochloric acid, and then premodified sepiolite (SEP) was impregnated with triethylenetetramine (TETA) to create a novel TETA functionalized SEP adsorbent. The effects of TETA loading and adsorption temperature on CO 2 adsorption capacity, as well as the CO 2 adsorption isotherm and cyclic regenerability were investigated. Results show that, when SEP was optimized at 30 wt % TETA (SEP-TETA-30%), the adsorbent attained a CO 2 adsorption capacity as high as 1.93 mmol/g at 50 °C with fast adsorption kinetics and good regenerability. The Freundlich model was best able to fit the experimental adsorption isotherm, and the isosteric heat of adsorption at high CO 2 coverage was 28 kJ/mol. The presence of moisture in simulated gas has a positive effect on the adsorption capacity, with less harm to adsorption stability. The adsorbent samples were further characterized by N 2 adsorption/desorption, scanning electron microscope, X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and thermogravimetric analysis. The increased surface area and pore volume of the SEP allow for effective immobilization of TETA within its channels. A kinetic study demonstrated that the experimental adsorption data for SEP-TETA-30% were well fitted by the pseudo-second-order model. More importantly, an index of cost efficiency was proposed to evaluate the practicability and competitiveness of amine-impregnated adsorbents. The cost efficiency of SEP-TETA-30% adsorbent was estimated as 0.19 mol CO 2 /$, which was higher than reported adsorbents, suggesting that the TETA functionalized SEP (SEP-TETA-30%) composite is a promising adsorbent for cyclic postcombustion CO 2 capture processes.