Renewable Energy from Waste: A Study of Landfill Gas Purification by Hybrid Porous Materials
Investigator: California State University, Long Beach (Fangyuan Tian)
Start Date: October 2017
Award Amount: $125,000
Landfill gas (LFG) is generated during decomposition processes in municipal solid waste landfills. Converting LFG to energy (high-BTU gas, >96% CH4) has significant environmental and economic benefits. There is a critical need to reduce the cost and improve the efficiency of converting LFG to high-BTU gas. The goal of this study is to design a novel hybrid porous material with zeolitic imidazolates (i.e. metal organic sorbents) to purify CH4 from all impurity gases in a single processing step based on different molecular sizes.
To achieve this goal, the primary objectives include:
- To characterize the chemical composition and structure of zeolites
- Measure and calculate gas separation selectivity of CH4 with CO2, N2, O2, H2O, and H2S in equilibrium and kinetic conditions
- Perform layered adsorption for actual landfill gas purification
This report is now final. Access it here.