Separation of methane and nitrogen using ionic liquidic zeolites by pressure vacuum swing adsorption

Abstract

The separation of methane (CH4) and nitrogen (N2) is a significant challenge to the enrichment and utilization of low concentration CH4 due to the similarity in the physical and chemical properties of the two molecules. In this work, we investigated the separation of CH4 from N2 using 100 kg of a new ionic liquidic zeolite (ILZ) material in a 6-bed pilot-scale pressure swing adsorption process. Feed gases with CH4 concentrations of 5.0% and 16.1% were upgraded to 11.5% and 34.6%, respectively, with CH4 recoveries higher than 80%. The pilot test results were used to anchor a numerical model that then allowed the efficient investigation of multiple operational parameters including desorption p..