A novel method to synthesize super-activated carbon for natural gas adsorptive storage

The design and scale-up preparation of adsorbent is the key to commercialize the adsorptive storage technology of natural gas (ANG). The super activated carbon might be potential to ANG because of its special porosity. The traditional approach to prepare the super activated carbon is the chemical activation using alkali hydroxides as activation agent. Of difficult is how to control of micropore diameter and volume while maintain the super high surface area. Coupling approach to prepare super activated carbon from coke or coal was firstly achieved and the mechanism was tentatively postulated. It is found that activated carbon prepared by coupling approach bears developed micropore structure, which is produced by depth activation catalyzed by chemical agent at moderate temperature and might be feasible for adsorption storage of natural gas, and considerable mesopore structure, which is formed by width activation catalyzed by chemical agent and/or steam at elevated temperature and feasible for desorption process of ANG. The activation mechanism of coupling approach is actually two-step activation, depth activation at moderate temperature and width activation at elevated temperature. It means that the coupling of chemical activation with physical activation is a potential approach to prepare the adsorption materials for natural gas storage.