Kinetic behaviour of iron oxide sorbent in hot gas desulfurization

Although a number of reports on sorbents containing ZnO for H₂S removal from coal-derived gases can be found in the literature, it is shown in our study that a special sorbent containing Fe₂O₃·FeO (SFO) with minor promoters (Al₂O₃, K₂O, and CaO) as the main active species is more attractive for both sulfidation and regeneration stages, also under economic considerations. This paper presents the kinetic behaviour of SFO in a hot gas desulfurization process using a thermogravimetric analysis under isothermal condition in the operating range between 500 and 800 °C. The gas stream was N₂ with a 2% wt of H₂S. Experiences carried out on sorbent sulfidation with SFO (particle sizes in the range of 0.042-0.12 mm) indicate that the sorbent sulfidation capacity sharply increases with temperature in the range of 500-600 °C. It is also shown that the sample weight reaches its maximum absorption capacity, near saturation, at 600 °C so that it makes no sense to increase the sulfidation temperature from this point. To make a comparison between SFO and a zinc titanate based sorbent, a set of sulfidation tests was carried out at 600 °C during 7200 s using the same sieve range for both sorbents between 42 and 90 μm. Results show that the sulfidation capacity of SFO is 1.9 times higher than that of zinc titanate.