The mechanism of CO regeneration on V2O5/AC catalyst and sulfur recovery

V2O5/AC catalyst has widely been researched with its highly active for SO2 removal in our group. In this process, previous research considered that the final desulfurization product of V2O5/AC is H2SO4, which is captured by storing in the pores of AC, and regeneration of the SO2-captured materials is necessary to recover its ability to SO2 adsorption. In this paper, CO is firstly chosen as a regeneration gas to catalytic reduce desorption H2SO4 on V2O5/AC. Compared with thermal regeneration, CO regeneration can recover the activity and stability of V2O5/AC better. The best regeneration condition is 0.15% CO/N2 at 350 °C with 90 min. A part of sulfur adsorbed on V2O5/AC cannot be desorbed even in CO regeneration. A mechanism is proposed in which CO regeneration promotes H2SO4 desorption and decreases the consumption of AC. Thus the desulfurization activity and stability is recovered or kept better than thermal regeneration. The activity of sulfur recovery is correlated to temperature and the feed CO/SO2 molar ratios.