ADVANCED BYPRODUCT RECOVERY: DIRECT CATALYTIC REDUCTION OF SO2 TO ELEMENTAL SULFUR
Arthur D. Little, Inc., together with its commercialization partner, Engelhard Corporation, and its university partner Tufts, investigated a single-step process for direct, catalytic reduction of sulfur dioxide from regenerable flue gas desulfurization processes to the more valuable elemental sulfur by-product. This development built on recently demonstrated SO{sub 2}-reduction catalyst performance at Tufts University on a DOE-sponsored program and is, in principle, applicable to processing of regenerator off-gases from all regenerable SO{sub 2}-control processes. In this program, laboratory-scale catalyst optimization work at Tufts was combined with supported catalyst formulation work at Engelhard, bench-scale supported catalyst testing at Arthur D. Little and market assessments, also by Arthur D. Little. Objectives included identification and performance evaluation of a catalyst which is robust and flexible with regard to choice of reducing gas. The catalyst formulation was improved significantly over the course of this work owing to the identification of a number of underlying phenomena that tended to reduce catalyst selectivity. The most promising catalysts discovered in the bench-scale tests at Tufts were transformed into monolith-supported catalysts at Engelhard. These catalyst samples were tested at larger scale at Arthur D. Little, where the laboratory-scale results were confirmed, namely that the catalysts do effectively reduce sulfur dioxide to elemental sulfur when operated under appropriate levels of conversion and in conditions that do not contain too much water or hydrogen. Ways to overcome those limitations were suggested by the laboratory results. Nonetheless, at the end of Phase I, the catalysts did not exhibit the very stringent levels of activity or selectivity that would have permitted ready scale-up to pilot or commercial operation. Therefore, we chose not to pursue Phase II of this work which would have included further bench-scale testing, scale-up, pilot-scale (0.5 MW{sub e}) testing at conditions representative of various regenerable SO{sub 2}-control systems, preparation of a commercial process design, and development of a utility-scale demonstration plan.
- Research Organization:
- Federal Energy Technology Center Morgantown (FETC-MGN), Morgantown, WV (United States); Federal Energy Technology Center Pittsburgh (FETC-PGH), Pittsburgh, PA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- US Department of Energy (US)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC-95PC95252
- OSTI ID:
- 14458
- Report Number(s):
- DE-AC-95PC95252-09; TRN: AH200136%%572
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: PBD: 1 May 1999
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Advanced byproduct recovery: Direct catalytic reduction of sulfur dioxide to elemental sulfur. Quarterly report, April 1--June 30, 1997
Advanced byproduct recovery: Direct catalytic reduction of sulfur dioxide to elemental sulfur. Second quarterly technical progress report, January--March 1996