Clay-based adsorbents for biogas upgrading – CLAYGAS

Nanoporous materials derived from clays feature textural properties and volumetric gas adsorption performances comparable to those of traditional industrial adsorbents for gas treatment process, such as bio-methane upgrading by CO2 capture. In this specific context, we have recently shown that smectites with residual moisture in the expanded interlayer space, exhibit not only higher gas adsorption capacity, but also the exceptional selectivity to CO2 over CH4. The combination of these specific properties with the availability of the natural precursors (smectites) makes clay adsorbents attractive for industrial applications. The present project aims at the design of novel high-surface-area clay-based porous materials (combing the strategies of smectite cation exchange, acidic activation etc.) supported by thorough characterization of their CO2/CH4 adsorption properties in a large range of P and T conditions and biogas upgrading process design relying on measured adsorption data.