Int. Journal of Renewable Energy Development 10 (2) 2021:249-255 Page | IJRED-ISSN: 2252-4940. Copyright © 2021. The Authors. Published by CBIORE 249 7 Contents list available at IJRED website Int. Journal of Renewable Energy Development (IJRED) Journal homepage: https://ejournal.undip.ac.id/index.php/ijred The Effect of Amine Types on Breakthrough Separation of Methane on Biogas Kuni Masruroh, Rochim Bakti Cahyono, Imam Prasetyo, Teguh Ariyanto * Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Indonesia ABSTRACT. Methane (CH4) and carbon dioxide (CO2) are the main components of a renewable energy source of biogas. Separation of CO2 from biogas is significantly important to improve biogas performance, due to heating value in biogas depends on the concentration of methane. One of the gas separation technologies that has been widely used in chemical industries is carbon molecular sieve (CMS). This research explores the potential of CMS for biogas purification. CMS was prepared by modification of palm kernel shell-derived porous carbon using amine groups such as monoethanolamine (MEA), 2-amino-2-methyl-1-propanol (AMP), and diethanolamine (DEA). The effect of amine types on the separation parameters was studied by using a breakthrough experiment to obtain the most potential CMS materials. The methods of this research include the process of carbon oxidation using hydrogen peroxide, impregnation with an amine group, characterization of the CMS material obtained, CO2 and CH4 gas separation testing with a breakthrough system. The CMS was characterized by using N2 sorption analysis, fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and scanning electron microscopy. The breakthrough experiment showed that CMS-MEA had the highest performance for separating CO2 and CH4 gases. In addition, the results also showed that loading of amine groups on carbon caused an increase in the uptake capacity of CO2, and the highest capacity was achieved by CMS- MEA of 13.2 mg/g. Keywords: amine groups, biogas, breakthrough time, carbon molecular sieve, CO2 gas separation Article History: Received: 15 th Oct 2020; Revised: 3 rd Dec 2020; Accepted: 15 th Dec 2020; Availableonline: 20 th Dec 2020 How to Cite This Article: Masruroh, K., Cahyono, R.B., Prasetyo, I., Ariyanto,T. (2021), The Effect of Amine Types on Breakthrough Separation of Methane on Biogas. Int. Journal of Renewable Energy Development, 10(2), 249-255. https://doi.org/10.14710/ijred.2021.33514 1. Introduction Renewable energy sources are used as an alternative to minimize the use and dependence of fossil fuels. Research and development of renewable energy have been widely studied. Biogas is a renewable energy source that can be an alternative solution to supply energy demand with advantages such as low environmental impact and high energy efficiency (Appels et al., 2008; Ariyanto et al., 2017; Poletti et al., 2011). Biogas has the potential as a substitute for fossil fuels in several applications, such as for heating, electricity generation, and vehicle fuel when upgraded to bio-methane (Rasi et al., 2011). Therefore, biogas can contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The composition of biogas consists of methane (CH4) and carbon dioxide (CO2) and other impurities in very small amounts such as water (H2O), hydrogen (H2), nitrogen (N2), hydrogen sulfide (H2S), oxygen (O2), and ammonia (NH3). Biogas components are divided into two categories, namely combustible and non-combustible components. The detailed composition of biogas is presented in Table 1. Compared with natural gas which has a heating value of 36 MJ/Nm 3 , biogas containing 60% CH4 has a lower heating value, namely 21.5 MJ/Nm 3 (Hosseini & Wahid, 2014). The purity of the biogas is a very important consideration because it affects the calorific value \* Corresponding author: teguh.ariyanto@ugm.ac.id produced. The energy in biogas depends on the concentration of methane so that the biogas produced needs to be purified against other impurities. The carbon dioxide content can limit the use of biogas as renewable energy. The high percentage of CO2 in biogas causes the calorific value of the biogas to decrease, corrodes equipment, and increases emissions (Akkarawatkhoosith et al., 2019; Ricaurte et al., 2012). Removal of CO2 content can convert the concentration of methane to a higher level, which is commonly referred to as biomethane (>95% methane) so that the calorific value of biogas can be increased as contained in natural gas. Table 1 Composition of biogas(Mursec et al., 2009; Surendra et al., 2014) Component Concentration Category Methane (CH4) 50-75% Combustible Carbon dioxide (CO2) 25-50% Non-combustible Water (H2O) 1-5% Non-combustible Hydrogen (H2) <1% Combustible Nitrogen (N2) 0-5% Non-combustible Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) 0-5000 ppm Combustible Oxygen (O2) Ammonia (NH3) <1% 0-500 ppm Non-combustible Non-combustible Research Article