Because of the high demand for hydrogen in the oil industries, new technologies for hydrogen production are being investigated. The thermochemical splitting cycle is one of them. Among the cycles that have been investigated, sulfur-iodine (S-I) water splitting is the most studied. In the S-I cycle, there are three reactions: H2SO4 decomposition, Bunsen reaction and HI decomposition. A new thermochemical cycle has been developed based on the S-I cycle, which is a H2S splitting cycle. In the H2S cycle, there are also three reactions. The only difference between S-I and H2S cycle is that the H2SO4 decomposition reaction is replaced by a reaction between hydrogen sulfide and sulfuric acid which produces sulfur dioxide, elemental sulfur and water. Research on this reaction has been done for many years, studying thermodynamic, kinetics and mass transfer. This reaction produces sulfur, sulfur dioxide and water. The SO2 produced is the used in the second reaction in the H2S cycle; the Bunsen reaction.<p>
The main objective of this research was to find an operating condition to increase the production of SO2 from the reaction between H2S and H2SO4. This study investigated different conditions such as temperature, stirring rate and sulfuric acid concentration to maximize the production of SO2. The temperature and stirring rate range used in the reaction were from 120 to 160°C and from 0 to 400 rpm, respectively. The sulfuric acid concentrations were between 90 and 96 wt%. The results showed that increasing the temperature and the acid concentration in the reaction between H2S and H2SO4, the SO2 produced from this reaction will increase. There is no need to apply stirring in the reaction, because the stirring will increase the surface area which allows the produced sulfur dioxide in the gas phase to be dissolved more in sulfuric acid solution, which favors the unwanted side-reaction between SO2 and H2S. A model that was developed to predict the partial pressure change of SO2 in closed reactor. This model was used to compare the data between experimental and simulation through Matlab software. The simulated data was compared to the experimental data and the results indicated that the model fits the data satisfactorily.
Additionally, study on the separation between the remaining sulfuric acid and produced elemental sulfur from the reaction between H2S and H2SO4 were performed. The mixture was placed in an oven at140°C of temperature for two hours. It was found that all small droplets of sulfur produced during the reaction between hydrogen sulfide and sulfuric acid agglomerated and the sulfuric acid solution became clearer.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:SSU.etd-12202010-111342 |
| Date | 25 February 2011 |
| Creators | da Silva Nuncio, Patricia |
| Contributors | Wang, Hui |
| Publisher | University of Saskatchewan |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://library.usask.ca/theses/available/etd-12202010-111342/ |
| Rights | restricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University of Saskatchewan or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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