The following Thesis is comprised of two separate and individual
parts, both of which relate to the disposal of hydrogen
sulfide. Section One is an investigation into the possibility of
developing a hydrogen sulfide decomposition process which would
produce both hydrogen and elemental sulfur. Section Two deals with
the speciation study of a catalyst used in a traditional process
which converts hydrogen sulfide gas into elemental sulfur. / Section 1: <p> The disposal of hydrogen sulfide by electrolysis to produce
both hydrogen and sulfur appears to an interesting alternative to
the conventional Claus process which wastes the hydrogen content of
hydrogen sulfide. The electrolysis at room temperature has been
reported in the literature, however, the investigation was somewhat
limited by the low conductivity displayed by the electrolysis solution
(pyridine/hydrogen sulfide mixture). </p> <p> The primary goal of this research was to construct a suitable
apparatus and carry out a series of conductivity measurements of
liquid hydrogen sulfide at room temperature with and without the
addition of possible electrolytes. The objective was to determine if
an electrolyte could be found that would increase the conductivity
to a suitably high level to warrant the further investigation of the
electrolysis process. </p> <p> Of the six possible electrolytes, only tetrapropyl ammonium
iodide increased the conductivity to a desirable level. A 0.4034 M
solution of this alkyl ammonium iodide in liquid hydrogen sulfide
increased the conductivity (at 23 C) from 7.00 X 10-8 ohm-1cm-1 for
the pure solvent to 1.13 X 10-2 ohm-1cm-1. This increase was attributed
to the formation of the corresponding hydrogen sulfide adduct
and its subsequent dissociation in liquid hydrogen sulfide. </p> </p> Now that it has clearly been established that appropriately
high conducting solutions of hydrogen sulfide can be prepared, the
further investigation of the electrolysis of hydrogen sulfide as a
viable industrial process is warranted. </p> Section 2: <p> This section deals with the investigation of species present in
vanadium(IV): citrate solutions over a wide range of pH values.
Various spectroscopic methods (UV/VIS, ESR, vanadium Sl FT-NMR) were
used to probe this specific system. The accumulated spectroscopic data
were rationalized on the basis of thirteen vanadium(IV) containing
species, four of which were proposed to be vanadium(IV): citrate
species. Based on the observed spectroscopic data an equilibrium
diagram was prepared which illustrates the vanadium(IV) species present
as a function of pH. </p> / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:mcmaster.ca/oai:macsphere.mcmaster.ca:11375/19656 |
| Date | 09 1900 |
| Creators | Walker, Thomas |
| Contributors | Hileman, O.E., None |
| Source Sets | McMaster University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
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