Conventional methanol distillation and purification processes are highly energy-intensive, and a simple methanol purification method with low energy consumption is urgently needed. Moreover, conventional adsorbents have low methaonl selectivity under humid conditions. This study develops a selective methanol adsorbent, manganese hexacyanocobaltate (MnHCC), which enables the efficient removal and reuse of methanol. MnHCC adsorbs 4.8 mmol-methanol/g-adsorbent at 25 degrees in a humid gas containing 5000 ppmv of methanol, which is five times higher than the adsorption capacity of activated carbon (0.86 mmol/g). Although MnHCC exhibits the simultaneous adsorption of methanol and water, it has a higher adsorption enthalpy for methanol than that for water. Thus, pure methanol (95 wt%) was recovered via thermal desorption after dehydration. The estimated energy of pure methanol recovery was 18.9 MJ/kg-methanol, approximately half that of existing mass production methods. MnHCC is reusable in the process and stable even after 10 cyclic experiments. Consequently, MnHCC has the potential to contribute to both the recycling of methanol from waste gas and its low-cost purification.

Trace methanol recovery from humid gas and purification by the selective desorption of methanol with metal hexacyanocobaltate

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