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Vacuum swing adsorption on natural zeolites from tuffs in a prototype plant
Author(s) -
Petracchini Francesco,
Paolini Valerio,
Liotta Flavia,
Paciucci Lucia,
Facci Enrico
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
environmental progress and sustainable energy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.495
H-Index - 66
eISSN - 1944-7450
pISSN - 1944-7442
DOI - 10.1002/ep.12530
Subject(s) - biogas , pressure swing adsorption , chabazite , natural gas , adsorption , methane , vacuum swing adsorption , swing , chemistry , zeolite , flue gas desulfurization , chemical engineering , waste management , materials science , pulp and paper industry , catalysis , organic chemistry , engineering , mechanical engineering
A vacuum swing adsorption (VSA) prototype plant was developed and tested, based on natural zeolites from tuffs containing Chabazite. The regeneration procedure of natural zeolites was optimized, and the operative pressure resulted to be the most important parameter. The VSA prototype was fed for 3 months with a real biogas, produced by agrozootechnical byproducts in an anaerobic baffled reactor (ABR). Biogas composition from ABR was very stable and allowed to deeply investigate the performances of natural zeolites in real biogas conditions. Biogas was desulfurized and dehydrated before the VSA unit. In our experimental conditions, a biomethane average purity > 98% was achieved, with methane recovery > 95%. CO 2 concentration was always lower than 0.3%, while oxygen ranged from 0.2 to 1.5%. A light desulfurization effect was also observed. CH 4 concentration was < 0.1% in the VSA off‐gas. © 2017 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Environ Prog, 36: 887–894, 2017