Abstract
Adsorbents consisting of MnxOy, ZnxOy, and MnxOy–ZnxOy supported on activated carbon (AC) have been successfully prepared and characterized by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), specific surface area (BET) and SEM. The results show that Mn is present in the forms of Mn3+ and Mn4+, and Zn is present in the form of Zn2+. Mn and Zn mainly exist in the forms of MnO2 and ZnO respectively, as the active components of the adsorbents. MnO2–ZnO/AC was found to exhibit the best H2S desulfurization performance. At 313 K, the breakthrough time was 108 min, the saturated sulfur capacity was 334.7 mg/g, and the degree of desulfurization was 74.2%. The H2S removal capacities of the different adsorbents decreased in the order: MnO2–ZnO/AC > ZnO/AC > MnO2/AC > AC. The MnO2–ZnO/AC adsorbent retained some activity for removal of H2S after regeneration at 643 K for 2 h in air.
Introduction
With ever-increasing energy demands, there is clearly a pressing need to maximize usage efficiency. Natural gas represents a high-quality, efficient, and clean energy source, and has been widely used as such in most developed countries (Zou et al., 2013). However, natural gas derived from mining processes is often contaminated by acidic gases such as hydrogen sulfide (H2S). Toxic H2S is not only harmful to human health, but can also corrode equipment in industrial production, poison catalysts, and so on, which has caused great damage and loss. Therefore, the H2S content of the gas must be reduced to acceptable levels before it can be used (Chaichanawong et al., 2010; Huang et al., 2006; Koriakin et al., 2012; Jaiboon et al., 2014).
At present, the main methods applied for gas desulfurization can be divided into dry and wet processes. Wet desulfurization is used to high concentrations of H2S, it has the advantage of being applicable on a large scale, but its disadvantages high power consumption, bulky equipment, high running costs, and the need for strictly controlled conditions. In dry adsorption, desulfurization contact is maintained between the gas phase and a solid phase, H2S is either physisorbed or chemisorbed on a solid adsorbent. Dry process desulfurization technology has a long history. Its advantages are the simple technological process, low energy consumption, and high desulfurization efficiency and precision. The most widely used materials in dry process desulfurization are activated carbon, silica, and molecular sieves (Lim et al., 2008; Sun et al., 2007; Wang et al., 2014).
By virtue of the high specific surface area and porosity of activated carbon, it can be loaded with more metal cations to form an efficient adsorbent, and is therefore the material of choice for dry desulfurization. However, adsorption on unmodified activated carbon is mainly physisorption, and hence the adsorption performance is poor. As reported by Fang, an adsorbent made of activated carbon loaded with metal oxide shows superior performance in H2S removal (Fang et al., 2013). Indeed, more and more researchers are focusing on activated carbon loaded with metal oxides for desulfurization.
In the present work, ZnxOy/AC, MnxOy/AC, and MnxOy–ZnxOy/AC have been prepared, and their adsorptive desulfurization performances toward a simulated low H2S concentrations gas have been studied. The MnxOy–ZnxOy/AC adsorbent showed a higher sulfur capacity and a faster desulfurization rate, and performed at a low adsorption temperature, making it the most economic and efficient adsorbent for the removal of H2S from natural gas. It is hoped that this work will not only provide theoretical insight into the operation of metal-oxide-modified activated carbon in the deep desulfurization of natural gas, but also guidance for its industrial application.
Experimental
Preparation of adsorbents
Preparation of activated carbon-supported manganese oxide (MnxOy/AC) AC is cocoanut activated carbon from Shanxi Xinhua Activated Carbon Factory. Its BET surface area is 685.7 m2/g and particle sizes are within 0.5–1 mm. A certain amount of potassium permanganate was dissolved in 100 mL of deionized water and stirred at room temperature for some time. Then, a calculated amount of AC was added into the resulting solution and stirred for 30 min (The mass ratio of manganese dioxide to AC were 1:1.). About 150 mL of hydrogen peroxide was dripped into the previous suspension with magnetic stirring. The titration speed was carefully controlled at 0.5–1 drop per second to make the potassium permanganate reacted with hydrogen peroxide completely during titration (equation (1)).
Activated carbon supported zinc oxide (ZnxOy/AC) was synthesized by impregnating AC with zinc nitrate solution (5 wt%). After filtration and drying in air, the solid was calcined at 573 K for 2 h to obtain ZnxOy/AC adsorbent with a Zn:AC mass ratio of 0.5:1. Activated carbon-supported manganese oxides and zinc oxides (MnxOy–ZnxOy/AC) were synthesized by impregnating PMA with zinc nitrate solution (5 wt%). After filtration and drying in air, the solid was calcined at 573 K for 2 h to obtain MnxOy–ZnxOy/AC adsorbent with an Mn:AC:Zn mass ratio of 1:1:0.5.
Characterization of adsorptions
XPS experiments
X-ray photoelectron spectra were obtained by using an K-Al pha (Thermofisher Scienticfic) with Al Ka X-radiation (the resolution of the instrument is 1.15 eV).
X-ray diffraction experiments
X-ray diffraction was obtained by using an D/max-2200PC (Rigaku Corporation) at 40 kV and 30 mA using monochromatized Cu-Ka radiation. The patterns were measured over the 2θ range from 10° to 80° at a scan step of 10°/min.
Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy experiments. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) were obtained using the KBr disk technique on a TENSOR 27 (BRUKER) FTIR spectro photometer (the resolution of the instrument is 4 cm−1). Background and sample were scanned in a minute by using 24 DigiTect TM detector system and ROCKSOLIDTM interferometer.
BET experiments
The specific surface area and total pore volumes of catalyst were calculated on a BET apparatus (NOVA2000e) with N2 adsorption. All the samples were outgassed at 180℃ until the vacuum pressure was 6 mm Hg. The adsorption isotherms for nitrogen were measured at −196℃ (liquid N2). The surface area (
SEM experiments
SEM was obtained in the vacuum conditions with accelerating voltage of 100 V to 30 kV by using a SIGMA scanning electron microscopy (Carl Zeiss AG, Germany) instrument to enlarge the sample to 2000 ∼ 10,000 times.
Adsorption experiments
Measurements of adsorbent activity were conducted in a fixed-bed reactor. The fixed-bed reactor, which consisted of a quartz glass tube of internal diameter 10 mm and height 300 mm (the effective bed height of adsorbent was 90 mm), was positioned vertically in a clam shell furnace. 0.2 g of the prepared adsorbent was loaded into the center region of the reactor. The up and down sides of the adsorbent were filled with quartz sand. The model fuel gas from a feed tank passed through a reducing valve and entered into the reactor at a flow rate of 20 mL·min−1. Any unabsorbed H2S gas in the effluent gas would be absorbed by the liquid in the absorption bottle, and the H2S content of the absorption liquid was determined by iodometry at intervals of 5 min. The breakthrough concentration was defined as that at which the H2S concentration in the effluent gas reached 10% of the initial gas concentration, that is 2 mg/L. The H2S capacity, saturated H2S capacity, and H2S removal rate were calculated according to the concentration of sulfur in the absorption liquid after the experiment.
The H2S saturation capacity is defined as the amount of adsorbed H2S per gram of adsorbent when the H2S concentrations in the effluent and in the initial gas are the same. It can be calculated as follows
H2S saturation capacity is defined as the amount of adsorbed H2S per gram of adsorbent when the H2S concentrations in the effluent and in the initial gas are the same. It can be calculated as follows
The H2S removal rate
Results and discussion
Adsorbent characterization
XPS analysis
The MnxOy/AC and MnxOy–ZnxOy/AC adsorbents were studied by XPS, and the Mn 2p spectra are shown in Figure 1(a). It is well known (Jang et al., 2012; Li et al., 2009) that Mn3+ can be identified by an Mn 2p3/2 binding energy in the range 641.1–641.5 eV, and that Mn4+ can be identified by a binding energy in the range 642.3–642.8 eV. The Mn 2p3/2 lines for MnxOy–ZnxOy/AC were shifted by 0.4 and 0.5 eV to lower binding energy compared to those for MnxOy/AC. The Mn 2p content was decreased from 26.4% in MnxOy/AC to 2.22% in MnxOy–ZnxOy/AC (Table 1). The Zn 2p3/2 spectra of ZnxOy/AC and MnxOy–ZnxOy/AC are shown in Figure 1(b). For MnxOy–ZnxOy/AC, the Zn 2p3/2 line was shifted by 0.2 eV to lower binding energy compared to that for ZnxOy/AC (Morozov et al., 2015). The XPS patterns of ZnxOy/AC and MnxOy–ZnxOy/AC show two peaks and the shake-up satellite. For ZnxOy/AC, the binding energy at 1021.3 eV can be attributed to Zn2+ species. The Zn 2p content was increased from 2.1% in ZnxOy/AC to 4.63% in MnxOy–ZnxOy/AC (Table 1) (Al-Gaashani et al., 2013).
XPS spectrum of MnxOy/AC, ZnxOy/AC, and MnxOy–ZnxOy/AC adsorbents. Spectral parameters of AC, MnxOy/AC, ZnxOy/AC, and MnxOy–ZnxOy/AC by XPS analysis.
The electronic absorption abilities of the different species decrease in the order: Zn2+> Mn4+> Mn3+. For MnxOy–ZnxOy/AC, the shift in the peak positions of the Mn and Zn species can be attributed to an increase in the electron cloud density, which is caused by sharing electron pairs through covalent bonds because of interaction between the respective species.
XRD results
The XRD patterns of AC, MnO2/AC, ZnO/AC, and MnO2–ZnO/AC are shown in Figure 2. The diffuse peaks at 2θ = 20−30° (002) and 2θ = 40−50° (101) can be assigned to activated carbon, and indicate an irregular microcrystalline graphite structure therein. For the MnO2/AC adsorbent, peaks at 2θ = 12.8° (110), 18° (200), 28.8° (310), 37.6° (211), 41.9° (301), 49.8° (411), and 60.2° (521) show that the adsorbent in the active group was divided into MnO2. For ZnO/AC, the peaks at 2θ = 36.3° (002), 38.7° (100), 43.1° (101), and 54.8° (102) can be attributed to birnessite ZnO (Garces et al., 2010). For MnO2–ZnO/AC, the peaks at 2θ = 27.9° and 44.7° can be attributed to graphitic carbon, indicating that the regularity of the activated carbon structure was greatly enhanced. A sharp peak at 2θ = 27.9° is seen for MnO2–ZnO/AC, which shows that the structure of activated carbon rules is greatly enhanced, ZnO in the adsorbent characteristic peak does not reduce, and the intensity of characteristic peak of MnO2 are greatly reduced, may be due to load first ZnO, ZnO occupies the first position in a lot of space, greatly reduce the load of MnO2 (Heiba et al., 2012).
XRD patterns of AC, MnO2/AC, ZnO/AC, and MnO2–ZnO/AC adsorbents.
FTIR results
Figure 3 shows the FTIR spectra of the AC, MnO2/AC, ZnO/AC, and MnO2–ZnO/AC adsorbents. For each of the samples, a peak at ν = 3420 cm−1 was observed, which could be attributed to the O–H stretching vibrations of hydroxyl, carboxyl, and surface-adsorbed water. The peaks at ν = 2926 and 1629 cm−1 could be attributed to the symmetric and asymmetric stretching vibrations of C–H and C=O of the lactone base, respectively. The peaks at ν = 1383 and 1039 cm−1 could be attributed to asymmetric and symmetric COO− stretching vibrations and skeleton C–O stretching vibrations of the activated carbon, respectively. The spectra of the MnO2/AC, ZnO/AC, and MnO2–ZnO/AC absorbents retained all of the characteristic peaks seen for the unmodified activated carbon, indicating that the types of functional groups thereon were unchanged. Compared with AC, a peak at ν = 601 cm−1 was detected for MnO2/AC, which could be attributed to the characteristic absorption of Mn-O (Wang et al., 2014). For ZnO/AC, a peak at ν = 570 cm−1 could be attributed to the characteristic absorption of Zn-O (Bhunia et al., 2015). For MnO2–ZnO/AC, narrow and intense characteristic peaks at ν = 550 and 619 cm−1 could be attributed to adsorption peak of Zn-O and Mn-O, respectively, providing evidence for the incorporation of Mn and Zn into the framework (Fang et al., 2010). These findings were in accordance with the results obtained by XRD and XPS.
FTIR spectra of AC, MnO2/AC, ZnO/AC, and MnO2–ZnO/AC adsorbents.
Pore properties of AC, MnO2/AC, ZnO/AC, and MnO2–ZnO/AC adsorbents.
SEM analysis
Figure 4 shows SEM images of the AC and MnO2–ZnO/AC adsorbents. It can be seen that loading with MnO2 and ZnO has a great influence on the microstructure of AC. The SEM image of the AC reveals a relatively smooth surface, particles of many different sizes, and relatively few channels. However, the SEM image of MnO2–ZnO/AC shows that there are great changes in the modified activated carbon surface. The surface of channel distribution of activated carbon is dense, the holes is filled with solid particles, and in the process of loading, pore-forming completes, although the channels increase, making pore volume larger. These observations are consistent with the results of BET analysis (Zhang et al., 2012).
SEM analysis of the AC and MnO2–ZnO/AC adsorbents.
Desulfurization performances of the adsorbents
All of the adsorbents were evaluated at an adsorption temperature of 313 K with a gas velocity of 20 mL/min using a fixed-bed plug flow reactor. The results are shown in Figure 5 and Table 3. For AC, the desulfurization performance, with a breakthrough time of 20 min and a saturated adsorption time of 70 min, was poor. Compared to those for AC, the breakthrough time (108 min) and saturated sulfur capacity (334.7 mg/g) for MnO2–ZnO/AC were increased tremendously. The desulfurization performances of the various adsorbents decreased in the order: MnO2–ZnO/AC > ZnO/AC > MnO2/AC > AC.
Breakthrough curves of AC, MnO2/AC, ZnO/AC, and MnO2–ZnO/AC adsorbents. Desulfurization performance of AC, MnO2/AC, ZnO/AC, and MnO2–ZnO/AC adsorbents.
Regeneration of MnO2–ZnO/AC adsorbent
Regeneration experiments were also performed in the packed-bed microreactor. The adsorbent was first purged in a flowing nitrogen gas stream for about 30 min at 643 K. Regeneration was then achieved by maintaining it at 643 K for 2 h in air. The breakthrough curve of the MnO2–ZnO/AC adsorbent after regeneration is shown in Figure 6. The saturated sulfur capacity for MnO2–ZnO/AC after regeneration decreased from 334.7 to 205.4 mg/g. The recovered saturated sulfur capacity of 205.4 mg/g for MnO2–ZnO/AC after regeneration was still much higher than that of AC. It was therefore shown that the adsorbent retained certain activity for H2S removal after regeneration at 643 K for 2 h in air.
Breakthrough curves of MnO2–ZnO/AC adsorbent after regeneration.
Conclusions
Adsorbents consisting of MnO2, ZnO, and MnO2–ZnO supported on activated carbon have been successfully prepared. XPS results showed that Mn was present in the forms of Mn3+ and Mn4+, and that Zn was present in the form of Zn2+. The specific surface area of MnO2–ZnO/AC was evaluated as 450.3 m2/g. Compared with the original activated carbon, the specific surface areas of all of the modified samples were lower, decreasing in the order: AC > ZnO/AC > MnO2–ZnO/AC > MnO2/AC. The results of fixed-bed adsorption desulfurization experiments indicated that MnO2–ZnO/AC showed the best H2S desulfurization performance. The H2S removal capacities of the various adsorbents decreased in the order: MnO2–ZnO/AC > ZnO/AC > MnO2/AC > AC. The saturated sulfur capacity for MnO2–ZnO/AC after regeneration decreased from 334.7 to 205.4 mg/g, but was still much higher than that for AC, showing that the adsorbent was still active after regeneration.
Footnotes
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
