Excellent fibrous adsorbent for water and organic compounds

J. Buk, J.M. Macak, L. Hromadko, T. Hrebicek, J. Ruzickova
PARDAM s.r.o.,
Czech Republic

Keywords: inorganic silica fibers sorbent

Summary:

Industrial production of SiO2 fibers with unique textural properties and excellent H2O and VOCs adsorption performance will be presented. At first, a three-dimensional network of SiO2 precursor fibers was produced from tailored spun solutions (without any toxic elements and surfactants) by centrifugal spinning, which is a very modern fiber-synthesis technique, with numerous advantages over electrospinning. Upon thermal annealing of the precursor fibers, mesoporous amorphous SiO2 (NnF CERAM – SiO2 SORBENT) fibers with an ultrahigh surface area of 800 - 1000 m2/g and pore size distribution in the range of 2−10 nm were produced. High specific surface area and mesoporosity are essentially the main advantages of these fibers, compared to other silica materials. Other advantages include also a low sorbent weight, non-flammability, high thermal resistance and low pressure drop. Silica fibers can capture 40% more water than classical silica gel and can be easily and cheaply desorbed for its next use at lower temperatures. Moreover, they are capable of recovery at lower temperatures, which reduces energy consumption. Larger number of desorption cycles prolonging lifetime of these sorbent is realistic, thus making an additional positive cost figure [1] In addition, this fiber material can effectively adsorb various VOCs, heavy metals and other organic compounds. These are compounds that are not easily removable by standard sorbents, for example by activated carbon. Results on the adsorption of various organic substances carried out using the pilot reactor with silica fibers predetermines their excellent prospect for the use in wide scale of spaces, like offices or industrial halls to remove organic substances, or even to capture higher boiling VOCs. Testing of new sorption reactor filled with SiO2 adsorbent and installed in real industrial facilities started at the beginning of 2019! [1] L. Hromádko et al., ACS Omega, 2, 5052-5059 (2017)