Effect of porous structure of coal on propylene adsorption from gas mixtures

This paper addresses the issue of the sorption process on coal concerning propylene released from the source of coal heating in the deposit. In this study, the interaction between Polish coals and propylene molecules, as well as three other hydrocarbons (ethylene, ethane, and propane) with the application of a fixed-bed column, was investigated. The experimental results show that propylene adsorption was measurable under the experimental conditions. The differences in the amount of adsorbed propylene were predominately caused by various gas diffusion rates within the pore network associated with the molecular sieving effect. According to the experimental results, the influence of mesopores on propylene adsorption was significantly stronger than the share of micropores of the explored coals. The column tests demonstrated that the largest amount of propylene was adsorbed by coal with the highest value of pore diameter (6.48 nm) determined by nitrogen adsorption at 77 K. Under the experimental conditions, the influence of other hydrocarbons and a surface area on the quantity of the adsorbed gas was unnoticeable. This study provides an understanding of the behavior of some of the fire gases during the flow of the mixture through a heterogeneous structure of coal in the mine environment. The sorption of gases from multi-component mixture released during the self-heating of coal on carbon materials such as bituminous and lignite coals is poorly understood which provides the rationale for the topic of this work.