The goal of this research was to identify and fabricate zeolitic membranes that can separate radioisotope krypton-85 (half-life 10.72 years) and xenon gas released during spent nuclear fuel reprocessing. In spent nuclear fuel reprocessing, fissionable plutonium and uranium are recovered from spent nuclear fuel and recycled. During the process, krypton-85 and xenon are released from the spent nuclear fuel as process off-gas. The off-gas also contains NO, NO2, 129I, 85Kr, 14CO2, tritium (as 3H2O), and air and is usually vented to the atmosphere as waste without removing many of the radioactive components, such as 85Kr. Currently, the US does not reprocess spent nuclear fuel. However, as a member of the International Framework for Nuclear Energy Cooperation (IFNEC, formerly the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership), the United States has partnered with the international nuclear community to develop a “closed” nuclear fuel cycle that efficiently recycles all used nuclear fuel and safely disposes all radioactive waste byproducts. This research supports this initiative through the development of zeolitic membranes that can separate 85Kr from nuclear reprocessing off-gas for capture and long-term storage as nuclear waste. The implementation of an 85Kr/Xe separation step in the nuclear fuel cycle yields two main advantages. The primary advantage is reducing the volume of 85Kr contaminated gas that must be stored as radioactive waste. A secondary advantage is possible revenue generated from the sale of purified Xe. This research proposed to use a zeolitic membrane-based separation because of their molecular sieving properties, resistance to radiation degradation, and lower energy requirements compared to distillation-based separations. Currently, the only commercial process used to separate Kr and Xe is cryogenic distillation. However, cryogenic distillation is very energy intensive because the boiling points of Kr and Xe are -153 °C and -108 °C, respectively. The 85Kr/Xe separation step was envisioned to run as a continuous cross-flow filtration process (at room temperature using a transmembrane pressure of about 1 bar) with a zeolite membrane separating krypton-85 into the filtrate stream and concentrating xenon into the retentate stream. To measure process feasibility, zeolite membranes were synthesized on porous α-alumina support discs and permeation tested in dead-end filtration mode to measure single-gas permeance and selectivity of CO2, CH4, N2, H2, He, Ar, Xe, Kr, and SF6. Since the kinetic diameter of krypton is 3.6 Å and xenon is 3.96 Å, zeolites SAPO-34 (pore size 3.8 Å) and DDR (pore size 3.6 Å) were studied because their pore sizes are between or equal to the kinetic diameters of krypton and xenon; therefore, Kr and Xe could be separated by size-exclusion. Also, zeolite MFI (average pore size 5.5 Å) permeance and selectivity were evaluated to produce a baseline for comparison, and amorphous carbon membranes (pore size < 5 Å) were evaluated for Kr/Xe separation as well. After permeation testing, MFI, DDR, and amorphous carbon membranes did not separate Kr and Xe with high selectivity and high Kr permeance. However, SAPO-34 zeolite membranes were able to separate Kr and Xe with an average Kr/Xe ideal selectivity of 11.8 and an average Kr permeance of 19.4 GPU at ambient temperature and a 1 atm feed pressure. Also, an analysis of the SAPO-34 membrane defect permeance determined that the average Kr/Xe selectivity decreased by 53% at room temperature due to unselective defect permeance by Knudsen diffusion. However, sealing the membrane defects with polydimethylsiloxane increased Kr/Xe selectivity by 32.8% to 16.2 and retained a high Kr membrane permeance of 10.2 GPU at ambient temperature. Overall, this research has shown that high quality SAPO-34 membranes can be consistently fabricated to achieve a Kr/Xe ideal selectivity >10 and Kr permeance >10 GPU at ambient temperature and 1 atm feed pressure. Furthermore, a scale-up analysis based on the experimental results determined that a cross-flow SAPO-34 membrane with a Kr/Xe selectivity of 11.8 and an area of 4.2 m2 would recover 99.5% of the Kr from a 1 L/min feed stream containing 0.09% Kr and 0.91% Xe at ambient temperature and 1 atm feed pressure. Also, the membrane would produce a retentate stream containing 99.9% Xe. Based on the SAPO-34 membrane analysis results, further research is warranted to develop SAPO-34 membranes for separating 85Kr and Xe.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T15:41:45Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 MarcelaNBpdf.pdf: 2700913 bytes, checksum: 95100e939e95f8047d0ef3d50eb366ab (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-08-12 / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cient?fico e Tecnol?gico / Emissions of CO2 in the atmosphere have increased successively by various mechanisms caused by human action, especially as fossil fuel combustion and industrial chemical processes. This leads to the increase in average temperature in the atmosphere, which we call global warming. The search for new technologies to minimize environmental impacts arising from this phenomenon has been investigated. The capture of CO2 is one of the alternatives that can help reduce emis ions of greenhouse gases. The CO2 can be captured through the process of selective adsorption using adsorbents for this purpose. Were synthesized by hydrothermal method, materials of the type MCM-41 and Al-MCM-41 in the molar ratio Si / Al equal to 50. The synthesis of gels were prepared from a source of silicon, sodium, water and aluminum in the case of Al-MCM-41. The period of synthesis of the materials was 5 days in autoclave at 100?C. After that time materials were filtered, washed and dried in greenhouse at 100 ? C for 4 hours and then calcined at 450 ? C. Then the calcined material was functionalized with the Di-isopropylamine (DIPA) by the method of wet impregnation. We used 0.5 g of material mesopores to 3.5 mL of DIPA. The materials were functionalized in a closed container for 24 hours, and after this period were dried at brackground temperature for 2 hours. Were subsequently subjected to heat treatment at 250?C for 1 hour. These materials were used for the adsorption of CO2 and were characterized by XRD, FT-IR, BET / BJH, SEM, EDX and TG / DTG. Tests of adsorption of CO2 was carried out under the following conditions: 100 mg of adsorbent, temperature of 75?C under flow of 100 mL/min of CO2 for 2 hours. The desorption of CO2 was carried out by thermogravimetry from ambient temperature to 900?C under flow of 25 mL min of He and a ratio of 10?C/min. The difratogramas X-ray for the synthesized samples showed the characteristic peaks of MCM-41, showing that the structure of it was obtained. For samples functionalized there was a decrease of the intensities of these peaks, with a consequent reduction in the structural ordering of the material. However, the structure was preserved mesopores. The adsorption tests showed that the functionalized MCM-41 is presented as a material promising adsorbent, for CO2 capture, with a loss of mass on the desorption CO2 of 7,52%, while that in Al-MCM- 41 functionalized showed no such loss / As emiss?es de CO2 na atmosfera v?m aumentando sucessivamente devido a v?rios mecanismos provocados pela a??o humana, principalmente como a queima de combust?veis f?sseis e processos qu?micos industriais. Isso leva ao aumento da temperatura m?dia na atmosfera, a qual chamamos de aquecimento global. A busca por novas tecnologias para minimizar os impactos ambientais decorrentes deste fen?meno tem sido investigadas. A captura de CO2 ? uma das alternativas que podem ajudar a diminuir as emiss?es desses gases. O CO2 pode ser capturado atrav?s do processo de adsor??o utilizando adsorventes seletivos para este fim. Foram sintetizados pelo m?todo hidrot?rmico, materiais do tipo MCM-41 e Al- MCM-41 na raz?o molar Si/Al igual a 50. Os g?is de s?nteses foram preparados partindo deuma fonte de sil?cio, s?dio, ?gua destilada e alum?nio no caso do Al-MCM-41. O per?odo de s?ntese dos materiais foi de 5 dias em autoclave a 100?C. Ap?s esse tempo os materiais foram filtrados, lavados e secos em estufa a 100?C durante 4 horas, e posteriormente calcinados a 450?C. Em seguida os materiais calcinados foram funcionalizados com a Di-iso-propilamina (DIPA) atrav?s do m?todo de impregna??o por via ?mida. Foi utilizado 0,5 g de material mesoporoso para 3 mL de DIPA. Os materiais funcionalizados ficaram em um recipiente fechado durante 24 horas, e ap?s esse per?odo foram secos em temperatura ambiente durante 2 horas. Posteriormente foram submetidos a um tratamento t?rmico a 250?C durante 1 hora. Estes materiais foram utilizados para o processo de adsor??o de CO2 e foram caracterizados por DRX, FT-IR, BET/BJH, MEV, EDX e TG/DTG. Os ensaios de adsor??o de CO2 foram realizados nas seguintes condi??es: 100 mg de adsorvente, temperatura de 75?C sob fluxo de 100 mL/min de CO2 durante 2 horas. A dessor??o do CO2 foi realizada atrav?s da termogravimetria, da temperatura ambiente at? 900?C, sob fluxo de 25 mL/min de He e uma raz?o de 10?C/min. Os difratogramas de raios-X para as amostras sintetizadas apresentaram os picos caracter?sticos do MCM-41, evidenciando que a estrutura do mesmo foi obtida. Para as amostras funcionalizadas observou-se uma diminui??o das intensidades desses picos, consequentemente, uma diminui??o do ordenamento estrutural do material. No entanto, a estrutura mesoporosa foi preservada. Os testes de adsor??o mostraram que o MCM-41 funcionalizado se apresentou como um material adsorvente promissor, para captura de CO2, com uma perda de massa referente ? dessor??o do CO2 de 7,52 %, enquanto que no Al-MCM- 41 funcionalizado n?o apresentou essa perda

Current membrane technology, based on polymeric materials, is subject to a limiting tradeoff between productivity (permeability) and efficiency (selectivity). Other materials with better gas separation performance exist, such as zeolites and carbon molecular sieves, but the physical characteristics of these materials inhibit industrial scale membrane preparation. This research focuses on the application of hybrid membrane technology, which has shown the ability to combine the advantageous properties of these materials, to a system comprised of carbon molecular sieves dispersed in the upper bound polymer 6FDA-6FpDA. Hybrid membranes require effective mass transfer across the interface between the two phases. This work shows the sensitivity of the component materials to processing conditions and the importance of consistency in gas separation membrane production. In particular, milling the sieves to reduce the size and using chemical linkage agents to bond to the polymer have potential to alter the separation performance of the respective materials. Analysis of multiple factors in this work provides important information regarding the source of unexpected properties in the hybrid membranes. Hybrid membrane testing in this work shows a need for active control of particle agglomerates within the dope prior to casting for effective membrane production. Continual sonication during the preparation of the casting dope was able to prevent the excessive agglomerates present in earlier trials. Further reduction of stresses generated during the casting process was also necessary to produce membranes with enhanced selectivity. Annealing the hybrid films above the polymer Tg appears to repair the interfacial morphology and produce effective membranes. The application of this process to enhance the gas separation performance of 6FDA-6FpDA represents the first known report of successful selectivity improvement in an upper bound polymer using the hybrid membrane approach.

Traditional gas separation technologies are thermally-driven and can have adverse environmental and economic impacts. Gas separation membrane processes are not thermally-driven and have low capital and operational costs which make them attractive alternatives to traditional technologies. Polymers are easily processed into large, defect-free membrane modules which have made polymeric membranes the industrial standard; however, polymers show separation efficiency-productivity trade-offs and are often not thermally or chemically robust. Molecular sieves, such as zeolites, have gas separation properties that exceed polymeric materials and are more thermally and chemically robust. Unfortunately, formation of large, defect-free molecular sieve membranes is not economically feasible. Mixed matrix membranes (MMMs) combine the ease of processing polymeric materials with the superior transport properties of molecular sieves by dispersing molecular sieve particles in polymer matrices to enhance the performance of the polymers. MMMs with high molecular sieve loadings were made using polyvinyl acetate (PVAc) and various molecular sieves. Successful formation of these MMMs required substantial modifications to low loading MMM formation techniques. The gas separation properties of these MMMs show significant improvements over PVAc properties, especially for high pressure mixed carbon dioxide-methane feeds that are of great industrial relevance.

A new innovative polymer pyrolysis method was proposed for creation of attractive carbon molecular sieve (CMS) membranes. Oxygen exposure at ppm levels during pyrolysis was hypothesized and demonstrated to make slit-like CMS structures more selective and less permeable, which I contrary to ones expectation. Indeed prior to this work, any exposure to oxygen was expected to result in removal of carbon mass and increase in permeability. The results of this study indicated that the separation performance and CMS structure may be optimized for various gas separations by careful tuning of the oxygen level. This finding represents a breakthrough in the field of CMS membranes. Simple replacement of pyrolysis atmospheres from vacuum to inert can enable scale-up. The deviation in CMS membrane performance was significantly reduced once oxygen levels were carefully monitored and controlled. The method was shown to be effective and repeatable not only with dense films but also with asymmetric hollow fiber membranes. As a result, this work led the development of the "inert" pyrolysis method which has overcome the challenges faced with previously studied pyrolysis method to prepare attractive CMS membranes. The effect of oxygen exposure during inert pyrolysis was evaluated by a series of well-controlled experiments using homogeneous CMS dense films. Results indicated that the oxygen "doping" process on selective pores is likely governed by equilibrium limited reaction rather than (i) an external or (ii) internal transport or (iii) kinetically limited reaction. This significant finding was validated with two polyimide precursors: synthesized 6FDA/BPDA-DAM and commercial Matrimid®, which implies a possibility of the "inert" pyrolysis method application extending towards various precursors. The investigation was further extended to prepare CMS fibers. Despite the challenge of two different morphologies between homogeneous films and asymmetric hollow fibers, the "inert" pyrolysis method was successfully adapted and shown that separation performance can be tuned by changing oxygen level in inert pyrolysis atmosphere. Moreover, resulting CMS fibers were shown to be industrially viable. Under the operating condition of ~80 atm high pressure 50/50 CO2/CH4 mixed gas feed, the high separation performance of CMS fibers was shown to be maintained. In addition, elevated permeate pressures of ~20 atm did effect the theoretically predicted separation factor. While high humidity exposures (80%RH) resulted in reduced permeance, high selectivity was sustained in the fibers. Recommendations to overcome such negative effects as well as future investigations to help CMS membranes to be commercialized are provided.

Distillation and absorption columns offer significant energy demands for future development in the petrochemical and fine chemical industries. Membranes and adsorbents are attractive alternatives to these classical separation units due to lower operating cost and easy device fabrication; however, membranes possess an upper limit in separation performance that results in a trade-off between selectivity (purity) and permeability (productivity) for the target gas product, and adsorbents require the need to be water-resistant to natural gas streams in order to withstand typical gas compositions. Composite membranes, or mixed-matrix membranes, are an appealing alternative to pure polymeric membrane materials by use of a molecular sieve “filler” phase which has higher separation performance than the pure polymer. In this thesis, the structure-property-processing relationships for a new class of molecular sieves known as zeolitic imidazolate frameworks (ZIFs) are investigated for their use as the filler phase in composite membranes or as adsorbents. These materials show robust chemical and thermal stability and are a promising class of molecular sieves for acid gas (CO₂/CH₄) separations. The synthesis of mixed-linker ZIFs is first investigated. It is shown that the organic linker composition in these materials is controllable without changing the crystal structure or significantly altering the thermal decomposition properties. There are observable changes in the adsorption properties, determined by nitrogen physisorption, that depend on the overall linker composition. The results suggest the proposed synthesis route facilitates a tunable process to control either the adsorption or diffusion properties depending on the linker composition. The structure-property-processing relationship for a specific ZIF, ZIF-8, is then investigated to determine the proper processing conditions necessary for fabricating defect-free composite membranes. The effect of ultrasonication shows an unexpected coarsening of ZIF-8 nanoparticles that grow with increased sonication time, but the structural integrity is shown to be maintained after sonication by using X-ray diffraction, Pair Distribution Function analysis, and nitrogen physisorption. The permeation properties of composite membranes revealed that intense ultrasonication is necessary to fabricate defect-free membranes for CO₂/CH₄ gas separations. Finally, the separation properties of mixed-linker ZIFs is investigated by using adsorption studies of CO₂ and CH₄ and using composite membranes with differing linker compositions. Adsorption properties of mixed-linker ZIFs reveal that these materials possess tunable surface properties, and a selectivity enhancement of six fold over ZIF-8 is observed with mixed-linker ZIFs without changing the crystal structure. Gas permeation studies of composite membranes reveal that the separation properties of mixed-linker ZIFs are different from their parent frameworks. By proper selection of mixed-linker ZIFs, there is an overall improvement of separation properties in the composite membranes when compared to ZIF-8.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T19:56:56Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 6316.pdf: 3231017 bytes, checksum: a8fd307c739622ae82bf2f7df59ea4a9 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-03-17 / Significant investments have been made in the development of technologies that enable the drying process of natural gas. The molecular sieves are highlighted in this context, due to features such as ion exchange capacity, thermal stability and especially for its ability to selective adsorption. The nanocrystalline structure favors the water diffusion into the pores of the material, providing greater adsorption efficiency. Therefore, the zeolite nano offers attractive possibilities in the exploration of their use in catalytic and adsorption processes. In this context, the present study aimed to vary some parameters such as aging time, the Si/Al ratio and the mineralizing source in order to synthesize nanocrystalline zeolites faujasitas. Diffractogramsshow that the high alkalinity along with increased aging time were effective for the peak intensity reduction. The Scherrer equation confirms that this decrease is due to obtain nanosized crystals. It is observed by SEM that the change of these same parameters also favored particle size reduction. Thermogravimetryresults enable us to find that 30% of the sample weight loss was water, although the adsorption of the sample was not induced. This fact confirms that even at ambient temperature and pressure, the nanocrystalline faujasite is highly hydrophilic. Adsorption isotherms of synthesized samples indicated that the material has a large surface area and a pore volume which favors and benefits its application in water adsorption. The adsorption tests made in situ at the National Synchrotron Light Laboratory (LNLS in Portuguese), XPDanalysis (X-Ray Diffraction Powder), note that its structure remains stable after adsorption and high temperatures, presenting a promising material in drying. Data from X-ray diffraction showed that the decrease of Si/Al ratio in the reaction mixture, both by source of alumina or silica, was not effective to increase the aluminum content in the network and eventually contributed to the emergence of other competing phases with FAU zeolite, thus compromising its purity. These phases also appeared when the alkalinity is increased in the synthesis at a temperature of 100°C (crystallization), where GIS (NaP1) and CAN phaseswere favored. The crystallization temperature reduce to 70°C was enough to solve this problem and show that all samples showed a reduction in the crystallite sizes with increasing external area. 29Si NMR analysis showed that the physicochemical changes done helped to reduce the Si/Al enough to obtain faujasite X. All samples synthesized in this study, regardless of the impurities, showed a reduction in pore volume, even with a rise in external area. The adsorption tests made with CO2, CH2 and N2 have shown that the faujasite has a larger adsorption capacity than commercial zeolite NaA. / Investimentos significativos têm sido feitos para o desenvolvimento de tecnologias que viabilizem o processo de secagem do gás natural. As peneiras moleculares ganham destaque nesse contexto, devido a características como, por exemplo, sua capacidade de troca iônica, estabilidade térmica e principalmente pela sua capacidade de adsorção seletiva. A estrutura nanocristalina favorece a difusão da água nos poros do material, garantindo maior eficiência de adsorção. Logo, a zeólita nanométrica oferece possibilidades atrativas na exploração de sua utilização em processos catalíticos e de adsorção. Nesse contexto, o presente trabalho teve como objetivo variar alguns parâmetros como o tempo de envelhecimento, a razão Si/Al e a fonte mineralizante com o intuito de sintetizar zeólitas faujasitas nanocristalinas. Difratogramas mostram que a alta alcalinidade juntamente com um maior tempo de envelhecimento foi eficiente para a diminuição da intensidade dos picos. A equação de Scherrer confirma que essa diminuição é devido à obtenção de cristais nanométricos. Observa-se pelo MEV que a mudança destes mesmos parâmetros favoreceu também a redução do tamanho das partículas. Resultados de Termogravimetria nos possibilita constatar que os 30% de perda mássica da amostra foi de água, apesar da amostra não ter sido induzida a adsorção. Esse fato confirma que mesmo em temperatura e pressão ambiente, a faujasita nanocristalina é altamente hidrofílica. Isotermas de adsorção das amostras sintetizadas indicam que o material possui uma elevada área superficial e um volume poroso que beneficia e favorece sua aplicação na adsorção da água. Os testes de adsorção feitos in situ no Laboratório Nacional de Luz Síncrotron (LNLS), análise de XPD (Difratometria de Raios X em Pó), constata que sua estrutura permanece estável após adsorção e a altas temperaturas, mostrando-se um material promissor na aplicação de secagem. Dados de difratometria de raios X mostraram que a diminuição da razão Si/Al na mistura reacional, tanto por fonte de alumina ou sílica, não foi eficiente para aumentar o teor de alumínio na rede e acabou contribuindo para o aparecimento de outras fases concorrentes com a zeólita FAU, comprometendo assim sua pureza. Estas fases também apareceram quando aumento-se a alcalinidade na síntese com temperatura de 100°C (cristalinização), onde a fase GIS (NaP1) e CAN foi favorecida. A redução da temperatura de cristalinização para 70°C foi suficiente para solucionar esse problema e evidenciar que todas as amostras apresentaram uma redução dos tamanhos dos cristalitos e aumento da área externa. Análises de RMN 29Si mostraram que as mudanças físico químicas realizadas favoreceram a diminuição da razão Si/Al suficientemente para obter a faujasita X. Todas as amostras sintetizadas no presente trabalho, independente das impurezas, apresentaram uma redução do volume poroso, mesmo com um aumento da área externa. Os testes de adsorção feitos com CO2, CH4 e N2 mostraram que a faujasita possui maior capacidade de adsorção do que a zeólita NaA comercial.

Orientador: Antonio Carlos Luz Lisboa / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia Quimica / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-06T17:26:02Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Mendez_ManoelOrlandoAlvarez_M.pdf: 2603376 bytes, checksum: 0c8ee135799f28f8bda8e30c0023f76d (MD5) Previous issue date: 2005 / Resumo: Materiais Carbonosos Ativados (MCA), tais como Carvões Ativados (CA) e Peneiras Moleculares de Carbono (PMC), são caracterizados por apresentar elevada área superficial específica e um grande volume de poros em sua matriz carbonosa, sendo sua principal propriedade a de adsorver moléculas tanto na fase líquida quanto na gasosa. O Brasil importa em sua totalidade peneiras moleculares produzidas a partir de precursores carbonosos, empregando-os nas mais diversas áreas de ciência e tecnologia e em vários segmentos industriais. O coque de petróleo é um resíduo com alto teor de carbono fixo e baixo teor de cinzas, e em decorrência de sua estrutura praticamente amorfa, é um material de pouco valor comercial, sendo considerado um resíduo problemático, tanto em termos ambientais quanto comerciais. Desta forma, a utilização de coque de petróleo para a produção de CAs e de PMCs torna-se atrativa para a utilização deste resíduo. O presente trabalho teve como objetivo estudar a síntese de carvões ativados através das ativações física e química de coque de petróleo proveniente da unidade de coqueamento retardado da REPLAN - PETROBRÁS, buscando avaliar as influências dos parâmetros de processo na qualidade dos CAs, tais como: concentração de agente ativante, tempo de ativação, temperatura de ativação e granulometria do coque de petróleo. A ativação física apresentou resultados insatisfatórios devido a baixa reatividade do coque de petróleo com o dióxido de carbono. Contudo, o coque de petróleo apresentou uma maior reatividade com hidróxido de potássio, permitindo desenvolver uma metodologia adequada para a ativação química do coque de petróleo com KOH, de modo a obter carvões ativados de elevada área superficial. Os resultados obtidos indicam a possibilidade de produção de carvões ativados de elevada área superficial, superiores a 2000 m2.g-1 a partir do coque de petróleo / Abstract: Activated Carbon MateriaIs (ACM), such as Activated Carbons (AC) and Carbon Molecular Sieves (CMS), are characterized by a high specific surface area em high pore volume in their carbon matrix, being their principal property to adsorb molecules in liquid and gas phase. Brazil imports all its molecular sieves, using them in several areas of science and technology and industrial segments. Petroleum coke is a high carbon content residue with low ash content, and due to its amorphous structure have low comercial value, being considered an environmental and comercial problem. In this sense, the utilization of petroleum coke to produce AC and CMS becomes an atractive utilization of this residue. The objective of the present work was to study the synthesis of activated carbon by physical and chemical processes using as raw material the petroleum coke originated from the delayed coking unit from REPLAN PETROBRAS, evaluating the infiuence of process parameters, such as activating agent concentration, activation time, activation temperature and average particle size on the AC quality. The results of physical activation of petroleum coke was not satisfactory due to the low reactivity of the petroleum coke with the carbon dioxide. However, the petroleum coke presented higher reactivity with potassium hidroxide, given the possibility to develop an adequate methodology to chemically activate petroleum coke with KOH, in order to obtain activated carbon with high specific surface area. The results indicated the possibility to produce activated carbon materiaIs from petroleum coke with surface area higher than 2000 m2 .g-l / Mestrado / Engenharia de Processos / Mestre em Engenharia Química

Orientador: Heloise de Oliveira Pastore / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Quimica / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-12T23:57:15Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Pires_CleoThomasGabrielVilelaMenegazTeixeira_M.pdf: 3580386 bytes, checksum: d250877101383c3bfd681800ef951608 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2006 / Resumo: Desde meados do século passado as peneiras moleculares compõem uma importante classe de materiais, que revolucionou o processo de craqueamento do petróleo. Propriedades como seletividade geométrica, alta área superficial e capacidade de troca iônica dentre outras, possibilitaram a otimização de vários processos de interesse. No final da década de 80 surgiu uma nova família de peneiras moleculares, formadas a partir da polimerização de fontes de carbono no interior dos canais e cavidades dos zeólitos e subsequente remoção do molde inorgânico por extração ácida ou básica. Esses carbonos porosos bem ordenados foram testados em diversas aplicações e apresentaram resultados promissores como suportes para catalisadores em células a combustível, materiais para a produção de supercapacitores e adsorventes de vitaminas e outras moléculas de importância biológica. O presente trabalho consistiu na preparação e caracterização de peneiras moleculares de carbono a partir da polimerização de acrilonitrila, álcool furfurílico e fenol/formaldeído no interior dos canais dos zeólitos com estrutura FAU e MWW. O conjunto de resultados obtidos indica que nos processos otimizados a polimerização ocorreu apenas no interior da estrutura cristalina dos zeólitos. Os carbonos sintetizados de modo geral apresentam uma estrutura formada por anéis poliaromáticos condensados contendo grupos superficiais oxigenados ou nitrogenados. A acrilonitrila apresentou um comportamento particular quanto à difusão e polimerização no interior da estrutura MWW, formando materiais diferenciados dos análogos oxigenados / Abstract: Since the middle of the last century, molecular sieves represent an important class of materials, and revolutionized the oil cracking process, optimizing it. Furthermore many other applications referred to the structural properties, such as geometric selectivity, high superficial area and ionic exchange capacity. In the end of the 80¿, a new family of molecular sieves was reported, formed from the polymerization of carbon sources into the zeolites channels and cavities, followed by the removal of the inorganic template for acid or basic extraction. These well ordered porous carbons have been tested in diverse applications and presented promising results such as support for catalysts in fuel cells, materials for the production of supercapacitors and adsorbents of vitamins and other molecules with biological importance. The present work consists of the preparation and characterization of carbon molecular sieves from the polymerization of acrylonitrile, furfuryl alcohol and phenol/formaldehyde onto the channels of the zeolites with FAU and MWW structure. The results obtained indicate that, in the optimized processes the polymerization occurred only in the interior of the zeolites crystalline structure, or at least in its majority. The synthesized carbons, in general way, present a structure formed of condensed polyaromatics rings containing oxygenated or nitrogenated superficial groups. Acrylonitrile presented a different behavior of diffusion and polymerization in the interior of MWW structure, forming material well differentiated of the analogous oxygenated / Mestrado / Quimica Inorganica / Mestre em Química

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Chemical Engineering / Liang T. Fan / Walter P. Walawender Jr / Carbon adsorbents, namely, activated carbons and carbon molecular sieves, can be variously applied in the purification and separation of gaseous and liquid mixtures, e.g., in the separation of nitrogen or oxygen from air; often, carbon adsorbents also serve as catalysts or catalyst supports. The formation of carbon adsorbents entails the modification of the original internal surfaces of carbonaceous substrates by resorting to a variety of chemical or physical methods, thereby augmenting the carbonaceous substrates' adsorbing capacity. The formation of carbon adsorbents proceeds randomly, which is mainly attributable to the discrete nature, mesoscopic sizes, and irregular shapes of the substrates utilized as well as to their intricate internal surface configuration. Moreover, any process of carbon-adsorbent formation may fluctuate increasingly severely with time. It is desirable that such a process involving discrete and mesoscopic entities undergoing complex motion and behavior be explored by means of the statistical framework or a probabilistic paradigm. This work aims at probabilistic analysis, modeling, and simulation of the formation of carbon adsorbents on the basis of mechanistic rate expressions. Specifically, the current work has formulated a set of linear and non-linear models of varied complexity; derived the governing equations of the models formulated; obtained the analytical solutions of the governing equations whenever possible; simulated one of the models by the Monte Carlo method; and validated the results of solution and simulation in light of the available experimental data for carbon-adsorbent formation from carbonaceous substrates, e.g., biomass or coal, or simulated data obtained by sampling them from a probability distribution. It is expected that the results from this work will be useful in establishing manufacturing processes for carbon adsorbents. For instance, they can be adopted in planning bench-scale or pilot-scale experiments; preliminary design and economic analysis of production facilities; and devising the strategies for operating and controlling such facilities.