Synthesis of zeolites 'type A' for adsorption of CO₂

The separation of gases is a very expensive step in the chemical industry and unquestionable relevance. In this work it was found the effectiveness of using zeolites of type A in the separation of CO₂ in a gas mixture containing 25% CO₂, 4% O₂ and 71% N₂ concentrations similar to exhaust gases from combustion processes. To this end, was synthesized using zeolites type A commercial kaolin and mounted to an adsorption column to test the efficiency of zeolites in the adsorption of CO₂. The synthesized zeolites showed surface area of 66.22m²/g. The CO₂ concentration was determined by gas chromatography with TCD detector. Adjusting the data to the Langmuir model, there was obtained the kinetics of adsorption. From these, we found the ability of zeolite to adsorb CO₂ used in the column of 0.461285mg/g. The results of adsorption proved promising and showed maximum adsorption of 78.4% at a time of 10 seconds. (author)