Removal of hydrogen sulfide from coke oven gas by catalytic oxidative absorption in a rotating packed bed

The shortage of low-sulfur coking coal will bring about an increasingly high hydrogen sulfide (H2S) in the coke oven gas (COG) in the near future. This work investigated the removal of hydrogen sulfide (H2S) from a simulated coke oven gas (COG) by catalytic oxidative absorption in a rotating packed bed (RPB). Sodium carbonate (Na2CO3) solution doped with 20 mg L−1 of a commercial “888” catalyst was used as the absorbent. The removal efficiency of H2S was evaluated under various operating conditions including rotation speed of the RPB (N), liquid-gas ratio (L/G), inlet H2S concentration (cH2S,in), temperature (T) and Na2CO3 concentration (cNa2CO3) in an attempt to optimize the conditions. The results were validated by comparison with those of separate experiments conducted in a packed column comprising a high-efficiency laboratory packing of Dixon rings. The comparison results reveal that the RPB exhibited higher H2S removal efficiency than the packed column, indicating it as an efficient gas-liquid contactor with a greater potential to remove H2S from COG.