关键词: separation;nitrogen and methane;pressure swing adsorption

Abstract: The separation between methane and nitrogen is an inevitable and important task in the C1
chemicaltechnology and the utilization of methane from coalbed, yet it is considered to be
one of the tough tasks in thefield of separation. Pressure swing adsorption is a preferable
technology if an adsorbent that allowing a largecoefficient of separation for the CH4/N2
system is available. The separation coefficients between CH4 and N2were obtained on
analyzing the breakthrough curves measured experimentally with nine adsorbents. A technique
ofmeasuring the temperature-pulse was incorporated in the experiments, and the reliability
of the result was improved.Superactivated carbon with large surface area and plenty of
micropores was shown to have the largest separationcoefficient and to be promising for the
commercial utilization.

Key words: separation, nitrogen and methane, pressure swing adsorption