Isoreticular rare earth fcu-MOFs for the selective removal of H2S from CO2 containing gases

by P.M. Bhatt, Y. Belmabkhout, A.H. Assen, Ł.J. Weseliński, H. Jiang, A. Cadiau, D.-X. Xue, M. Eddaoudi
Year: 2017 DOI: 10.1016/j.cej.2017.05.008

Extra Information

Chemical Engineering Journal, vol. 324, pp. 392-396, (2017)

Abstract




In this work, we present the implementation of reticular chemistry and the molecular building block approach to unveil the appropriateness of Rare Earth (RE) based Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs) with fcu topology for H2S removal applications. Markedly, RE-fcu-MOFs, having different pore aperture sizes in the range of 4.7–6.0 Å and different functionalities, showed excellent properties for the removal of H2S from CO2 and CH4containing gases such as natural gas, biogas and landfill gas. A series of cyclic mixed gas breakthrough experiments were carried out on three isoreticular fcu-MOFs, containing linkers of different lengths (between 8.4 and 5 Å), by using simulated natural gas mixture containing CO2/H2S/CH4 (5%/5%/90%) under different adsorption and regeneration conditions. The fcu-MOF platform has good H2S removal capacity with a high H2S/CO2selectivity, outperforming benchmark materials like activated carbon and Zeolites in many aspects. The comparison of H2S removal performance with the related structures of the RE-fcu-MOFs provides insightful information to shed light on the relationship between the structural features of the MOF and its associated H2S separation properties. The excellent H2S/CO2 and H2S/CH4 selectivity of these materials offer great prospective for the production of pure H2S, with acceptable levels of CO2for Claus process to produce elemental sulfur.
 

Keywords

Metal-organic frameworks MOFs Natural gas upgrading Hydrogen sulfide Rare Earthfcu-MOFs Claus process