The idea of the project was born by evaluating the possibility of using the ashes from rice husk combustion, which are rich in silica, as functionalized materials suitable to capture CO2.
The different types of ashes were then used in two different processes:
a) as part in a process of silica functionalization with Mono Ethyl Amine (MEA), Di Ethyl Amine (DEA) and Poly Ethylene Imine (PEI) at 5, 10, 15, 20 and 25% by weight
b) as part of a Carbon activation process with Potassium hydroxide.
On the different samples that we obtained, we sent known amounts of CO2 using a suitable vacuum ramp; next we studied the processes of physisorption and chemisorption through FTIR spectrophotometry.