Effect of Water on the Adsorption of Methane and Carbon Dioxide in Zeolite Na-ZSM‑5 Studied Using <i>in Situ</i> ATR-FTIR Spectroscopy

Methane is the main component in biogas and natural gas along with contaminants such as water and carbon dioxide. Separation of methane from these contaminants is therefore an important step in the upgrading process. Zeolite adsorbents and zeolite membranes have great potential to be cost-efficient candidates for upgrading biogas and natural gas, and in both of these applications, knowing the nature of the competitive adsorption is of great importance to further develop the properties of the zeolite materials. The binary adsorption of methane and carbon dioxide in zeolites has been studied to some extent, but the influence of water has been much less studied. In the present work, <i>in situ</i> ATR (attenuated total reflection)–FTIR (Fourier transform infrared) spectroscopy was used to study the adsorption of water/methane and water/carbon dioxide from binary mixtures in a high-silica Na-ZSM-5 zeolite film at various gas compositions and temperatures. Adsorbed concentrations for all species were determined from the recorded IR spectra, and the experimental values were compared to values predicted using the ideal adsorbed solution theory (IAST). At lower temperatures (35, 50, and 85 °C), the IAST was able to predict the binary adsorption of water and methane, whereas the values predicted by the IAST deviated from the experimental data at the highest temperature (120 °C). For the binary adsorption of water and carbon dioxide, the IAST could not predict the adsorption values accurately. This discrepancy was assigned to the particular adsorption behavior of water in high-silica MFI forming clusters at hydrophilic sites. However, the predicted values did follow the same trend as the experimental values. The adsorption selectivity was determined, and it was found that the H₂O/CH₄ adsorption selectivity was decreasing with increasing water content in the gas phase at low temperatures whereas the selectivity was increasing at higher temperatures. The H₂O/CO₂ adsorption selectivity was increasing with increasing water content at all temperatures