Synthesis of SAPO-56 using N,N,N’,N’-tetramethyl-1,6-hexanediamine and co-templates based on primary, secondary, and tertiary amines

Abstract Biomethane is a renewable fuel with a small environmental footprint. In its production, the removal of CO2 from the fermentation gas is critical. Pressure and vacuum swing adsorption (PSA and VSA) processes have certain advantages over other processes for the removal. Silicoaluminophosphate-56 (SAPO-56) has promising properties as an adsorbent for PSA- or VSA-based upgrading of raw biogas. It is typically synthesized by using N,N,N’,N’-tetramethyl-1,6-hexanediamine (TMHD) as a structure directing agent (SDA). In this study, TMHD was partly replaced with three different low-cost templates: isopropylamine (IPA), dibutylamine, and tripropylamine. SAPO-56 was co-crystallized with mixtures of templating amines with up to a ratio of 30%:70% of TMHD:IPA. With using TMHD:IPA, small and defined crystals of SAPO-56 plus SAPO-47 formed instead of the large aggregates of SAPO-56 that formed when only TMHD was used. Solid-state 13C NMR spectroscopy was used to show that the IPA and TMHD had not been decomposed and that both molecules were included within the as-synthesized crystals of SAPO-56. Synthetic composition diagrams were drawn with respect to the P2O5, SiO2, and Al2O3 compositions of the reaction mixtures and the formed crystalline SAPOs. In relation to these diagrams, the domains for stability of SAPO-56 were contrasted with those of SAPO-11, -17,-20, and -47. In particular, it was observed that SAPO-47 co-crystallized with SAPO-56 when a very large fraction of IPA was used under otherwise optimized conditions. As consistent with other studies, the SAPO-56 synthesized with dual SDAs had a very high uptake of CO2 at conditions relevant for PSA- or VSA-driven upgrading of raw biogas into methane.