Unprecedented Low-Cost Hybrid Material for CO2 and CH4 Separation

The zeolite synthesis using waste as silicon source is a promising low-cost process. Sugarcane bagasse ash is a hazardous solid waste generated in large amounts in the sugar industry. Thus, development of new procedures for its productive reuse is relevant. Therefore, this waste was used to prepare a new ZCNT (zeolite/carbon nanotube material). In this work, ZCNT was applied in a CO2/CH4 separation. The adsorption took place at 303 K under pressure of 0.1 until 20 bar and the data were fitted by Langmuir, Toth and Freundlich equations. The adsorbed amount at 20 bar found was 4.7 mmol of CO2/g and 4.1 mmol of CH4/g; at 3 bar the adsorbed amount was 4.1 mmol of CO2/g and 1.2 mmol of CH4/g. This result indicates that ZCNT has potential application in CO2/CH4 separation at low pressures.