Adsorption of carbonyl sulfide from liquid hydrocarbons with activated alumina and other adsorbents

Conference · Fri Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 1988

OSTI ID:5458897

Liu, P K.T. ^[1]

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1. Alcoa Separations Technology Div., Aluminum Co. of America, Warrendale, PA (US)

Contamination of Liquid hydrocarbon streams with carbonyl sulfide (COS) is not desirable; particularly in propylene. COS may poison the down stream polymerization catalyst. Thus, it is usually required to reduce the COS concentration to an extremely low level, e.g. 1 ppm or less, for polymer grade propylene. Many technologies generally available for sulfur removal, such as scrubbing and distillation are not applicable to the removal of COS from propylene. The former is not suitable for a low level removal. With the boiling point of COS (-50{sup 0}C) very close to that of propylene (-48{sup 0}C) it is difficult to achieve a very efficient separation with distillation. Adsorption technology provides a very energy efficient process in addition to its ability of the low level removal. Adsorbents selected in this study include activated carbon, molecular sieves, zinc oxide and activated alumina. The results show that activated alumina is far superior in both adsorption capacity and rate. An adsorption mechanism with activated alumina is proposed. It is believed that adsorption of COS takes place simultaneously with the hydrolysis of COS on the alumina surface. Adsorption isotherms of COS up to 100 ppm and the effect of moisture content are also addressed in this study.

• OSTI ID: 5458897
• Report Number(s): CONF-880348-
• Resource Relation: Conference: American Institute of Chemical Engineers spring national meeting, New Orleans, LA (USA), 6-10 Mar 1988; Other Information: Technical Paper 86H
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

02 PETROLEUM
ALUMINIUM OXIDES
SORPTIVE PROPERTIES
PROPYLENE
DESULFURIZATION
ADSORBENTS
ADSORPTION
CARBONYLS
DESORPTION
HYDROCARBONS
REMOVAL
SULFIDES
ALKENES
ALUMINIUM COMPOUNDS
CHALCOGENIDES
CHEMICAL REACTIONS
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
OXIDES
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
SORPTION
SULFUR COMPOUNDS
SURFACE PROPERTIES
020400* - Petroleum- Processing