Zeolite Degradation: An Investigation of CO2 Capacity Loss of 13x Sorbent

Abstract

System testing of the Carbon Dioxide Removal and Compression System (CRCS) has revealed that sufficient CO2 removal capability was not achieved with the designed system. Subsystem component analysis of the zeolite bed revealed that the sorbent material suffered significant degradation and CO2 loading capacity loss. In an effort to find the root cause of this degradation, various factors were investigated to try to reproduce the observed performance loss. These factors included contamination by vacuum pump oil, o-ring vacuum grease, loading/unloading procedures, and operations. This paper details the experiments that were performed and their results. From the experimentation performed, a definitive cause of failure could not be determined, and a more detailed zeolite failure analysis will need to be conducted.