Direct catalytic reduction of sulfur dioxide to elemental sulfur
- Arthur D. Little, Inc., Cambridge, MA (United States)
- Tufts Univ., Medford, MA (United States)
More than 170 wet scrubber systems applied to 72,000 MW of US, coal-fired, utility boilers are in operation or under construction. A small fraction of these systems produce a useable byproduct (gypsum): the remainder generate approximately 20 million tons per annum of disposable flue gas desulfurization (FGD) byproduct, which are transported and disposed of in landfills. The use of regenerable sorbent technologies has the potential to reduce or eliminate this solid waste production, transportation and disposal. All regenerable FGD systems produce an off-gas stream from the regenerator that must be processed further in order to obtain a saleable byproduct, such as elemental sulfur, sulfuric acid or liquid SO{sub 2}. This off-gas has only a fraction of the flue gas volume, and contains no oxygen. Recovery of sulfur from this stream in a single-stage catalytic converter, avoiding a multi-stage Claus plant, could decrease the cost and accelerate the commercialization of many regenerable FGD processes. The paper describes the plan to develop and scale-up an advanced byproduct recovery technology that is based on a direct, single-stage, catalytic process for converting sulfur dioxide to elemental sulfur. This catalytic process reduces SO{sub 2} over a fluorite-type oxide such as ceria and zirconia.
- OSTI ID:
- 549624
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-960954--
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Advanced Byproduct Recovery: Direct Catalytic Reduction of Sulfur Dioxide to Elemental Sulfur. Fifth quarterly technical progress report, December 1996
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