Alginate clay hybrid composite adsorbents for the reclamation of industrial lean methyldiethanolamine solutions

Abstract Alginate based clay hybrid composites were used as adsorbents for the removal of total organic acid anions (TOA) as heat stable salt (HSS) and heavy metal ions (chromium and iron) from industrial lean methyldiethanolamine (MDEA, 50 wt%) solvents. Spherical calcium alginate based hybrid (CAH) composites were prepared using three different filler clays such as sepiolite, montmorillonite and bentonite. To overcome the inherent iron leaching problem associated with clay minerals, an appropriate clay treatment method was utilized before preparing the hydrogel composite. The structure of the clay (before and after modification) and composites was characterized by XRD, whereas the sorption mechanism of the CAH hydrogel composites was conferred in combination with the results obtained from SEM, EDX and FTIR analyses. The effect of quantitative contributions of polymer, bead size, agitation speed, cross linker concentration, reaction time and filler weight% were studied using batch adsorption. The initial experiments confirmed that all the hybrid composites could superiorly separate HSS and heavy metal ions from lean MDEA solvents. 2.0 wt% clay containing composite hydrogels prepared by using 1 mm dropper in a CaCl2 solution of 1.5 M was found to have highest adsorption capacity. Thus, calcium alginate hybrid (CAH) composites showed efficient adsorption capacity for removing all the contaminants present in lean MDEA.