Recovery of Sulphur by Modified Claus Process Using Cold Bed Adsorption

A single stage conventional Claus catalytic reactor was modified by adding a cold bed adsorption (CBA) reactor operating in low temperatures in series with the former. Activated alumina catalysts in the form of cylindrical pellets impregnated with a promoter were used for the Claus reaction at low t...

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Main Authors: Bejoy K. Bharatiya, Yousef S. Al-Zaghayer, Waheed A. Al-Masry, Fahad S. Al-Mubaddel, Robert Amin
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2004-01-01
Series:Journal of King Saud University: Engineering Sciences
Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1018363918307992
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spelling doaj-cc77674bbab44a8d8de85d55f6f829c92020-11-25T02:47:16ZengElsevierJournal of King Saud University: Engineering Sciences1018-36392004-01-011716170Recovery of Sulphur by Modified Claus Process Using Cold Bed AdsorptionBejoy K. Bharatiya0Yousef S. Al-Zaghayer1Waheed A. Al-Masry2Fahad S. Al-Mubaddel3Robert Amin4Saudi Aramco, Riyadh, Saudi ArabiaDepartment for Chemical Engineering, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia,Department for Chemical Engineering, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia,Department for Chemical Engineering, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia,Department of Petroleum Engineering, Curtin University of Technology, Perth, Australia.A single stage conventional Claus catalytic reactor was modified by adding a cold bed adsorption (CBA) reactor operating in low temperatures in series with the former. Activated alumina catalysts in the form of cylindrical pellets impregnated with a promoter were used for the Claus reaction at low temperatures “(~175°C) to enhance the H2S conversion from 70% in the Claus reactor to more than 99 percent in the modified setup:2HS+SO2=3xSx+2H2O;ΔH=−109.2kJmol;for x=1,where X may vary from 2 to 8 and Sx represents the sulphur species like S2, S3, S4...S8. This has been possible by Operating the CBA reactor at temperatures below the dew point of sulphur in the reaction mixture. Effects of temperature and catalyst bed depth in the CBA reactor indicated that H2S conversion tends toward 100% at a temperature of 175°C, and 12 inch catalyst bed depth would be considered optimum at a conversion of 99.5%. At 15-18 inch bed depth, the increase in H2S conversion is negligible. At the lowest temperature studied (175°C), the exit gases contained only 0.05% (mole) of the acid gases. The catalytic deactivation through the deposited sulphur was not studied but it was predicted that the deactivation of catalysts did not occur as fast as was expected because sulphur partly plays the role of an autocatalyst in the Claus reaction. Catalyst regeneration by simple elimination of the deposited sulphur did not result in full recovery of the activity of the fresh catalyst.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1018363918307992
collection DOAJ
language English
format Article
sources DOAJ
author Bejoy K. Bharatiya
Yousef S. Al-Zaghayer
Waheed A. Al-Masry
Fahad S. Al-Mubaddel
Robert Amin
spellingShingle Bejoy K. Bharatiya
Yousef S. Al-Zaghayer
Waheed A. Al-Masry
Fahad S. Al-Mubaddel
Robert Amin
Recovery of Sulphur by Modified Claus Process Using Cold Bed Adsorption
Journal of King Saud University: Engineering Sciences
author_facet Bejoy K. Bharatiya
Yousef S. Al-Zaghayer
Waheed A. Al-Masry
Fahad S. Al-Mubaddel
Robert Amin
author_sort Bejoy K. Bharatiya
title Recovery of Sulphur by Modified Claus Process Using Cold Bed Adsorption
title_short Recovery of Sulphur by Modified Claus Process Using Cold Bed Adsorption
title_full Recovery of Sulphur by Modified Claus Process Using Cold Bed Adsorption
title_fullStr Recovery of Sulphur by Modified Claus Process Using Cold Bed Adsorption
title_full_unstemmed Recovery of Sulphur by Modified Claus Process Using Cold Bed Adsorption
title_sort recovery of sulphur by modified claus process using cold bed adsorption
publisher Elsevier
series Journal of King Saud University: Engineering Sciences
issn 1018-3639
publishDate 2004-01-01
description A single stage conventional Claus catalytic reactor was modified by adding a cold bed adsorption (CBA) reactor operating in low temperatures in series with the former. Activated alumina catalysts in the form of cylindrical pellets impregnated with a promoter were used for the Claus reaction at low temperatures “(~175°C) to enhance the H2S conversion from 70% in the Claus reactor to more than 99 percent in the modified setup:2HS+SO2=3xSx+2H2O;ΔH=−109.2kJmol;for x=1,where X may vary from 2 to 8 and Sx represents the sulphur species like S2, S3, S4...S8. This has been possible by Operating the CBA reactor at temperatures below the dew point of sulphur in the reaction mixture. Effects of temperature and catalyst bed depth in the CBA reactor indicated that H2S conversion tends toward 100% at a temperature of 175°C, and 12 inch catalyst bed depth would be considered optimum at a conversion of 99.5%. At 15-18 inch bed depth, the increase in H2S conversion is negligible. At the lowest temperature studied (175°C), the exit gases contained only 0.05% (mole) of the acid gases. The catalytic deactivation through the deposited sulphur was not studied but it was predicted that the deactivation of catalysts did not occur as fast as was expected because sulphur partly plays the role of an autocatalyst in the Claus reaction. Catalyst regeneration by simple elimination of the deposited sulphur did not result in full recovery of the activity of the fresh catalyst.
url http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1018363918307992
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