Hydrogen and sulfur production from hydrogen sulfide wastes

Conference · Fri Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1993

OSTI ID:6674498

Harkness, J B.L.; Doctor, R D

A new hydrogen sulfide waste-treatment process that uses microwave plasma-chemical technology is currently under development in the Soviet Union and in the United States. Whereas the present waste treatment process only recovers sulfur at best, this novel process recovers both hydrogen and sulfur. The plasma process involves dissociating hydrogen sulfide in a nonequilibrium'' plasma in a microwave or radio-frequency reactor. After the dissociation process, sulfur is condensed and sold just as is currently done. The remaining gases are purified and separated into streams containing the product hydrogen, the hydrogen sulfide to be recycled to the plasma reactor, and the process purge containing carbon dioxide and water. This process has particular implications for the petroleum refining industry, in which hydrogen is a widely used reagent and must be produced from increasingly scarce hydrocarbon resources. The modular nature of the new process may also offer economic advantages over small-scale waste treatment technologies widely used in the natural-gas industry. Laboratory-scale experiments with pure hydrogen sulfide indicate that conversions exceeding 90% are possible with appropriate reactor design and that the energy required to dissociate hydrogen sulfide is low enough for the plasma process to be economically competitive. In addition, the experiments show that typical refinery acid-gas streams are compatible with the plasma process and that all by-products can be treated with existing technology.

• Research Organization: Argonne National Lab., IL (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: DOE; USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: W-31109-ENG-38
• OSTI ID: 6674498
• Report Number(s): ANL/ES/CP-78832; CONF-9303108--1; ON: DE93008658
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

02 PETROLEUM
020800 -- Petroleum-- Waste Management
32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATION
320305* -- Energy Conservation
Consumption
& Utilization-- Industrial & Agricultural Processes-- Industrial Waste Management
CHALCOGENIDES
DISSOCIATION
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION
ELEMENTS
GASEOUS WASTES
HYDROGEN
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
HYDROGEN SULFIDES
INDUSTRIAL WASTES
INDUSTRY
MANAGEMENT
MATERIALS RECOVERY
MICROWAVE RADIATION
NONMETALS
PETROLEUM INDUSTRY
PLASMA
PROCESSING
RADIATIONS
REFINING
SULFIDES
SULFUR
SULFUR COMPOUNDS
WASTE MANAGEMENT
WASTE PROCESSING
WASTES