Application of a new multicomponent gas adsorption model to coal gas adsorption systems

A new multicomponent adsorption model is proposed for application to coal gas adsorption systems. The model is derived by combining the vacancy solution and Dubinin-Polanyi theories. Applications of the new adsorption model include the modeling of multicomponent adsorption processes associated with primary and enhanced coalbed methane recovery (ECBM). In the new model, the adsorbed phase in the single-component (pure) adsorption system is treated as a binary mixture of a single-component gas with. a hypothetical "vacancy" species, which also occupies adsorption space. The adsorption system is modeled as equilibrium between the gaseous phase and the adsorbed-phase vacancy solution. The Dubinin-Astakhov (D-A) equation is used to generate activity coefficients, as a function of the degree of pore-filling, for the pure component gas in the binary (adsorbate+vacancy) adsorbed-phase mixture. The Wilson equation is chosen to fit pure component (D-A-derived) activity coefficient curves by optimizing the binary interaction coefficients. These binary interaction coefficients are then used to predict multicomponent adsorption equilibrium, although only the case of binary adsorption is modeled here. The adsorbed phase mixture for binary gas adsorption is treated as a ternary mixture of the two pure component adsorbates and the hypothetical vacancy species. Binary gas adsorption equilibrium is described by equilibrium between the gaseous components and the components in the adsorbed phase solution. Adsorbed-phase activity coefficients are calculated from the Wilson equation, with the binary interaction coefficients obtained from pure component adsorption data. Thus, only pure component adsorption data are required to make binary and multicomponent adsorption predictions with the new model. Two binary (CH4+CO2) gas adsorption experimental data sets with coal as the adsorbent and one binary (CH4+C2H6) gas adsorption data set with activated carbon as the adsorbent are used to test the predictions of the new model. In most cases the new model is able to predict binary gas adsorption accurately. The poor fit of the Wilson equation to the D-A-derived activity coefficients for some pure component data suggests that some improvement in model predictions could be made with the choice of a different activity coefficient equation. A unique feature of the current model is the ability to predict multicomponent gas adsorption at different temperatures from the pure component adsorption data collected at a single temperature. The temperature independence of pure component "characteristic" curves, as demonstrated in Dubinin-Polanyi theory, allows pure component adsorption to be predicted for a range of temperatures. These pure component data can then be used in modeling binary or multicomponent adsorption data at various temperatures. This is demonstrated for one experimental binary gas adsorption data set.