Development of regenerable sorbents from abundant wastes for capture of CO2

Adsorption is one of the most promising technologies currently proposed to reduce CO2 emissions, with different types of physisorbents and chemisorbents being investigated. Neverthless, the use of sorbents derived from low-cost and abundant precursors (i.e. solid wastes) is an important strategy, not only because it can reduce the operational costs but also it helps to reduce the tonnes of wastes being dumped and burned in landfills every year. Continuing previous studies by the authors, in this work several regenerable carbon-based adsorbents have been developed from abundant wastes (i.e. carpet wastes). These materials have been tested for CO2 adsorption at temperatures 25-120 degrees C. The results showed that carpet wastes are suitable for the production of CO2 sorbents. Additionally, some of the prepared carbon based adsorbents presented CO2 capture capacities comparable with those obtained before for other commercial or laboratory synthesized materials. Moreover, the adsorbents prepared showed no significant deterioration in adsorption capacity, confirming the reproducibility and stability of these materials. (C) 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd.