A study on synthesis of ethane-selective nanoporous materials and their characterization

Abstract

The development of preferential adsorbents for ethane ($C_2H_6$) could significantly simplify ethylene ($C_2H_4$) production. Porous metal-organic frameworks with hydrogen acceptor sites show selective adsorption of ethane over ethylene

however, high-pressure ethane adsorption remains a challenge. In this thesis, recently developed lanthanum-catalysed synthesis of microporous graphene-like carbons was studied as an ethane-selective adsorbent. Microporous 3D graphene-like ordered carbons were synthesized according to the recently developed $Ca^{2+}$ ion-catalyzed carbon deposition method using FAU-, EMT-, and beta-zeolite templates. These Schwarzite-like carbons exhibited a remarkable performance for ethane separation from ethylene, over the range of 1 ~10 bar. Here, separation of light hydrocarbons with similar volatilities, such as ethane and ethylene using zeolite-templated carbon materials will be addressed with the structural study of this materials. Based on the preferential ethane adsorption of these zeolite-templated carbon materials, this thesis demonstrates the potential to develop novel zeolite-templated carbon materials for gas sorption and separation applications.