Kinetic Studies of a Novel Chemical Reaction in a Selective Separation of SO2 from Refinery Cat-cracker Stack Flue Gas

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Research Center of Petroleum University of Technology, North Bowardeh, Abadan, Iran

2 Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science, Memorial University of Newfoundland, NL A1B 3X5, Canada

Abstract

In the view of increased requirements on absorption rates and loading capacity for SO2 gas absorption solvents, the main purpose of this study is evaluating the reaction kinetics of absorption of sulfur dioxide gas in a mixture of flue gas with amine solution without CO2 gas being touched. In order to acquire this target, a selective amine-based absorber exploited and hence a high amount of SO2 gas absorbed in the scrubbing process. The process was aimed to decrease the quantity of sulfur dioxide gas in cat-cracker exhaust. In this regard, the pilot plant was designed and set up in the Research Center of Petroleum University of Technology, containing both absorption and desorption stages. In this study, the effect of parameters which can improve considerably the kinetic reaction of the whole process investigated. We evaluated the process using different levels of pH, desorption temperature, concentration of inlet SO2 gas, the absorber solution, and flow rate of the absorbing solution. We identified, thereafter, the optimum conditions for the absorption process and then reaction rate of sulfur dioxide gas absorption under optimum conditions. The results showed that an increase in temperature and the concentrations of inlet SO2 gas resulted in a higher reaction rate. More than 99 %, the process efficiency achieved based on varieties of the parameters we showed that SO2 gas was absorbed enough below standard level of 500 ppm from the inlet flue gas which is this success has much more merits for industrial sector purposes.

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