Structure and Properties of Carbon Fiber Based Adsorbent Monoliths

摘要

Carbon fiber monoliths manufactured by a novel slurry molding process from isotropic pitch-derived fibers are being developed at ORNL for gas separation and storage applications (1). Low density (p = 0.2 - 0,3 g/cm3) monoliths have been successfully demonstrated to have an acceptable pressure drop for gas separation applications and are currently being developed for C02/CH4 separations. Thermal conductivity, as a function of temperature, was measured using the LASER flash, thermal- pulse method. Another approach to minimizing the temperature gradients that develop in a storage bed is to increase the thermal conductivity of the adsorbent carbon. To this end, we have developed hybrid monoliths that contain small fractions of mesophase pitch- derived carbon fibers. Our hybrid monoliths exhibit thermal conductivities in the range 0.2-0.9 W/m.K depending on the blend and density of the monolith. In comparison, a packed bed of granular carbon at comparable density would have a thermal conductivity of approximately 0.1 W/m.K (1). The thermal conductivities of several of the hybrid The improved thermal conductivity of our monoliths is attributed to the bonding between the fibers and the incorporation of high thermal conductivity, mesophase pitch-derived carbon fibers. These features are visible in the SEM micrograph in Fig. 4.