The mutual transformation of hydrogen sulphide and carbonyl sulphide and its role for gas desulphurization processes with zeolitic molecular sieve sorbents

The physico-chemical fundamentals of gas desulphurization by zeolitic molec ular sieves are described. Structure-property relationships are derived for both the selective sorption separations of hydrogen sulphide from gases an d the formation of carbonyl sulphide, in the case that carbon dioxide is on e of the feed gas components. The formation of carbonyl sulphide under the conditions of a practical desulphurization process for natural gas is inter preted on the basis of fundamental laboratory scale data. A systematic stud y has been carried out to investigate the influence of zeolite and cation t ypes, cation exchange degree, sorption equilibrium properties of the variou s materials and gases, presorption of appropriate gases, time, temperature and hydrothermal stability of zeolitic sorbents on the catalytic reaction. A mathematical model to simulate technical desulphurization processes is de scribed and applied to the analysis of a technical purification plant with a utilization of related research data. The breakthrough behaviour of vario us gas mixture components for a cyclic plant regime is simulated for the ca ses of sorption purification from hydrogen sulphide without and with format ion of carbonyl sulphide. Various consequences that follow from the results , in particular with regard to the use of zeolites for gas desulphurization are discussed.