Breakthrough Curves of CO2 and CH4 on Carbon Molecular Sieves – Experiment and Modelling

Carbon 2015, Innovation with Carbon Materials, Dresden, July 12-17, 2015

Carbon molecular sieves (CMS) are widely used for the refinement of biogas to biomethane. This application is based on kinetic separation due to size selective adsorption in PSA processes. Modern CMS are tuned towards maximum sorption capacities regarding to the component, which is to adsorbed. By means of dynamic measurements, it is possible to examine such materials at realistic process conditions with respect to sorption kinetics and capacities.
In this study breakthrough curves of CO2, CH4 in He and their mixtures were measured on Shirasagi MSC CT-300. It can be shown, that an evaluation of the performance of such materials, based on isotherms are not always correct and will lead sometimes to misinterpretation of the whole separation process.