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Oxidative absorption of hydrogen sulfide using an iron‐chelate based process: chelate degradation
Author(s) -
Deshmukh Girish M.,
Shete Aparna,
Pawar Deepali M.
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
journal of chemical technology and biotechnology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.64
H-Index - 117
eISSN - 1097-4660
pISSN - 0268-2575
DOI - 10.1002/jctb.3903
Subject(s) - chemistry , hydrogen sulfide , inorganic chemistry , ferrous , ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid , hydrogen peroxide , ferric , sulfide , flue gas desulfurization , biogas , nuclear chemistry , chelation , sulfur , waste management , organic chemistry , engineering
BACKGROUND: Oxidative absorption of hydrogen sulfide into a solution of ferric chelates is studied in a stirred cell glass reactor. The experiments were performed to investigate the degradation of chelates sodium salt of nitrilotriacetic acid (NTA) (Merck), ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid diadisodium salt (EDTA) and diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid (DTPA) at 313 K, pH 6, iron concentration 10 000 g L −1 and Fe:chelate molar ratio 1:2. RESULTS: Oxidative absorption of hydrogen sulfide into a solution of Fe‐NTA was found to be more successful, therefore, further experiments with 10%, 50% and 100% concentrations of hydrogen sulfide were performed. It was shown that this process is applicable for removal of low and high concentrations of hydrogen sulfide. The effect of antioxidants using sodium thiosulfate was also studied in order to minimize degradation of NTA. The kinetics were studied and it was observed that the reaction appeared to be first order in ferric chelate with rate constants for 100, 50 and 10% hydrogen sulfide concentration: 0.035, 0.013 and 0.019 h −1 , respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Gas sweetening processes have commercial importance in natural gases, refinery of gases and biogas processing. Desulphurization and cleaning (i.e. removal of H 2 S and CO 2 ) of petroleum gas and biogas is important to make the gas methane rich and to increase the calorific value of fuel. The same techniques of desulphurization and cleaning can be used for treating natural gas or petroleum gas. The desulphurization and cleaning processes can minimize the atmospheric emission of gases like SOx, NOx and CO. As the iron chelate based process is based on the principle of redox reaction of metal chelate with hydrogen sulfide, this method is very useful for desulphurization of petroleum gas and biogas. This work studied the effective use of Fe‐NTA solution for removal of high to low concentrations of H 2 S as found in biogas and industrial waste gases. © 2012 Society of Chemical Industry