PENGARUH UKURAN ZEOLITE TERHADAP PENYERAPAN KARBONDIOKSIDA (CO2) PADA ALIRAN BIOGAS

Abstract

Biogas is one of the renewable energy as a replacement for fossil fuels that have been developed. Carbon dioxide gas (CO₂) contained within the content of biogas effect on decreasing calorific value of biogas during the combustion process, so that, it is necessary for further process to purify the gas. One of the adsorbent materials that can be used to reduce the content of carbon dioxide of the native biogas is zeolite. Differences in the particle size of zeolite may affect the percentage of absorption of carbon dioxide content of native biogas. The aim of present study was to determine the effect of variations in the particle size of zeolite to reduce the CO₂ content in the biogas flow and determine the effectiveness of zeolite to reduce the CO₂ content in the biogas stream. In this study, 5, 16 and 60 mesh of zeolite was used as adsorbent. In order to optimize the zeolite adsorption process, zeolite was activated by thermo-chemical reaction. The adsorption process was conducted with 0, 15, 30, 45 and 60 min of retention time. Results indicates an average reduction of CO₂ content is greatest in the 60 mesh zeolite with 3.80%, while 2.28% and 2.02% for respective 16 and 5 mesh. The effectiveness of CO₂ adsorption by 60 mesh zeolite was 76.8%, while 46.1% and 40.5% for respective 16 and 5 mesh. It concludes that smaller particle of adsorbent imply more effective and optimal when compared with other particle size.

Keyword: Biogas, Zeolite, CO_2, Adsorbent.