N-doped mesoporous alumina for adsorption of carbon dioxide.

N-doped mesoporous alumina has been synthesized using chitosan as the biopolymer template. The adsorbent has been thoroughly investigated for the adsorption of CO2 from a simulated flue gas stream (15% CO2 balanced with N2) and compared with commercially available mesoporous alumina procured from SASOL, Germany. CO2 adsorption was studied under different conditions of pretreatment and adsorption temperature, inlet CO2 concentration and in the presence of oxygen and moisture. The adsorption capacity was determined to be 29.4 mg CO2/g of adsorbent at 55 degrees C. This value was observed to be 4 times higher in comparison to that of commercial mesoporous alumina at a temperature of 55 degrees C. Basicity of alumina surface coupled with the presence of nitrogen in template in synthesized sample is responsible for this enhanced CO2 adsorption. Adsorption capacity for CO2 was retained in the presence of oxygen; however moisture had a deteriorating effect on the adsorption capacity reducing it to nearly half the value.

Heat transfer and thermographic analysis of catalyst surface during multiphase phenomena under spray-pulsed conditions for dehydrogenation of cyclohexane over Pt catalysts.

Dehydrogenation of cyclohexane over Pt/alumite and Pt/activated carbon catalysts has been carried out for hydrogen storage and supply to fuel cell applications. An unsteady state has been created using spray pulsed injection of cyclohexane over the catalyst surface to facilitate the endothermic reaction to occur efficiently. Higher temperature of the catalyst surface is more favorable for the reaction, thus the heat transfer phenomena and temperature profile under alternate wet and dry conditions created using spray pulsed injection becomes important. IR thermography has been used for monitoring of temperature profile of the catalyst surface simultaneously with product analysis. The heat flux from the plate-type heater to the catalyst has been estimated using a rapid temperature recording and thermocouple arrangement. The estimated heat flux under transient conditions was in the range of 10-15 kW/m(2), which equates the requirement for endothermic reactions to the injection frequency of 0.5 Hz, as used in this study. The analysis of temperature profiles, reaction products over two different supports namely activated carbon cloth and alumite, reveals that the more conductive support such as alumite is more suitable for dehydrogenation of cyclohexane.