Gas adsorption characteristics of cation-exchanged natural zeolite

Natural zeolite which originated from Pohang, Korea, was tested to investigate its use as gas adsorbent. Natural zeolite was treated with I mol/l sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium and ammonium chloride solution to exchange cations in the zeolite to the specific cation, respectively Cation- exchanged zeolites were activated at 423K, 673K and 873K for 30 minutes under atmospheric pressure. Specific surface, the amount of adsorbed CO2 and NH3 were evaluated for each cation- exchanged and heat-treated zeolite. The specific surface of zeolite activated at 873K increased 2 times for NH4-Type and decreased to 50% for other cation types. The amount of each adsorbed gas varied depending on cation types and activation temperature. NH4-type zeolite activated at 873K showed the highest amount of adsorption among the tested samples and showed the possibility to be used as gas adsorbent.