Different CO2 absorbents-modified SBA-15 materials are used as CO2 sorbent to improve the selectivity of CH4/CO2 separation. The SBA-15 sorbents modified by physical CO2 absorbents are very limited to increasing CO2 adsorption and present poor selectivity. However, the SBA-15 sorbents modified by chemical CO2 absorbents increase CO2 adsorption capacity obviously. The separation coefficients of CO2/CH4 increase in this case. The adsorption and regeneration properties of the SBA-15 sorbents modified by TEA, MDEA and DIPA have been compared. The SBA-15 modified by triethanolamine (TEA) presents better CO2/CH4 separation performance than the materials modified by other CO2 absorbents. 2017 Published by Elsevier B.V.