Storage and separation of CO2 and CH4 in silicalite, C168 schwarzite, and IRMOF-1:: A comparative study from monte carlo simulation

Storage of pure CO2 and CH4 and separation of their binary mixture in three different classes of nanostructured adsorbentssilicalite, C-168 schwarzite, and IRMOF-1have been compared at room temperature using atomistic simulation. CH4 is represented as a spherical Lennard-Jones molecule, and CO2 is represented as a rigid linear molecule with a quadrupole moment. For pure component adsorption, CO2 is preferentially adsorbed than CH4 in all the three adsorbents over the pressure range under this study, except in C-168 schwarzite at high pressures. The simulated adsorption isotherms and isosteric heats match closely with available experimental data. A dual-site Langmuir-Freundlich equation is used to fit the isotherms satisfactorily. Compared to silicalite and C-168 schwarzite, the gravimetric adsorption capacity of pure CH4 and CO2 separately in IRMOF-1 is substantially larger. This implies that IRMOF-1 might be a potential storage medium for CH4 and CO2. For adsorption from an equimolar binary mixture, CO2 is preferentially adsorbed in all three adsorbents. Predictions of mixture adsorption with the ideal-adsorbed solution theory on the basis of only pure component adsorption agree well with simulation results. Though IRMOF-1 has a significantly higher adsorption capacity than silicalite and C-168 schwarzite, the adsorption selectivity of CO2 over CH4 is found to be similar in all three adsorbents.