Removal of small elemental sulfur particles by polysulfide formation in a sulfidic reactor.

Autor: Mol AR; Environmental Technology, Wageningen University & Research, P.O. Box 17, 6700 AA, Wageningen, the Netherlands; Paqell B.V, Reactorweg 301, 3542 CE Utrecht, the Netherlands. Electronic address: annemerel.mol@wur.nl., Pruim SD; Environmental Technology, Wageningen University & Research, P.O. Box 17, 6700 AA, Wageningen, the Netherlands., de Korte M; Mathematical and Statistical Methods - Biometris, Wageningen University and Research, P.O. Box 16, 6700 AA Wageningen, the Netherlands., Meuwissen DJM; Environmental Technology, Wageningen University & Research, P.O. Box 17, 6700 AA, Wageningen, the Netherlands., van der Weijden RD; Environmental Technology, Wageningen University & Research, P.O. Box 17, 6700 AA, Wageningen, the Netherlands; Wetsus, European Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Water Technology, P.O: Box 1113, 8900 CC Leeuwarden, the Netherlands., Klok JBM; Environmental Technology, Wageningen University & Research, P.O. Box 17, 6700 AA, Wageningen, the Netherlands; Paqell B.V, Reactorweg 301, 3542 CE Utrecht, the Netherlands; Wetsus, European Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Water Technology, P.O: Box 1113, 8900 CC Leeuwarden, the Netherlands., Keesman KJ; Mathematical and Statistical Methods - Biometris, Wageningen University and Research, P.O. Box 16, 6700 AA Wageningen, the Netherlands; Wetsus, European Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Water Technology, P.O: Box 1113, 8900 CC Leeuwarden, the Netherlands., Buisman CJN; Environmental Technology, Wageningen University & Research, P.O. Box 17, 6700 AA, Wageningen, the Netherlands; Wetsus, European Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Water Technology, P.O: Box 1113, 8900 CC Leeuwarden, the Netherlands.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Water research [Water Res] 2022 Dec 01; Vol. 227, pp. 119296. Date of Electronic Publication: 2022 Oct 25.
DOI: 10.1016/j.watres.2022.119296
Abstrakt: For over 30 years, biological gas desulfurization under halo-alkaline conditions has been studied and optimized. This technology is currently applied in already 270 commercial installations worldwide. Sulfur particle separation, however, remains a challenge; a fraction of sulfur particles is often too small for liquid-solid separation with conventional separation technology. In this article, we report the effects of a novel sulfidic reactor, inserted in the conventional process set-up, on sulfur particle size and morphology. In the sulfidic reactor polysulfide is produced by the reaction of elemental sulfur particles and sulfide, which is again converted to elemental sulfur in a gas-lift reactor. We analyzed sulfur particles produced in continuous, long term lab-scale reactor experiments under various sulfide concentrations and sulfidic retention times. The analyses were performed with laser diffraction particle size analysis and light microscopy. These show that the smallest particles (< 1 µm) have mostly disappeared under the highest sulfide concentration (4.1 mM) and sulfidic retention time (45 min). Under these conditions also agglomeration of sulfur particles was promoted. Model calculations with thermodynamic and previously derived kinetic data on polysulfide formation confirm the experimental data on the removal of the smallest particles. Under the 'highest sulfidic pressure', the model predicts that equilibrium conditions are reached between sulfur, sulfide and polysulfide and that 100% of the sulfur particles <1 µm are dissolved by the (autocatalytic) formation of polysulfides. These experiments and modeling results demonstrate that the insertion of a novel sulfidic reactor in the conventional process set-up promotes the removal of the smallest individual sulfur particles and promotes the production of sulfur agglomerates. The novel sulfidic reactor is therefore a promising process addition with the potential to improve process operation, sulfur separation and sulfur recovery.
Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
(Copyright © 2022. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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