Sulfur dioxide oxidation reactors

Several other reports have also shown the importance of effective catalyst wetting on the performance of a bench-scale trickle-bed reactor. Hartman and Coughlin37 concluded that for sulfur dioxide oxidation in qojjntercurrejQt trickle-bed reactor packed with carbon particles, the catalyst was not completely wet at low liquid flow rates (of the order of 5 x 10 4 cm s-1). Sedricks and Kenney86 found that, during catalytic hydrogenation of crotonaldehyde in a cocurrent trickle-bed reactor, liquid seeped. into dry palladium-on-alumina... 

The laboratory scale physical model of the catalytic sulfur dioxide oxidation is a 0.05 m-diameter reactor containing 3 mm-diameter pellets of catalyst over a height of 0.15 m. The bed is flushed through at 430 °C by a gas flow that contains 0.07 kmol S02/kmol total gas, 0.11 kmol 02/kmol total gas and 0.82 kmol N2/kmol total gas. The gas spatial velocity is 0.01 m/s. 

Temperature profiles, reactors ammonia synthesis, 582, 584 cement kiln, 590 cracking of petroleum, 595 endo- and exothermic processes, 584 jacketed tubular reactor, 584 methanol synthesis, 580 phosgene synthesis, 594 reactor with internal heat exchange, 584 sulfur dioxide oxidation, 580... 

The entropy production of a sulfur dioxide oxidation (exothermic) reactor with heat exchangers was minimised in two different cases.Case 1 was a four-bed reactor with intermediate heat exchangers of a given total area, see Figure 8. The entropy production rate was calculated from the entropy balance over the system. All inlet and outlet flow conditions were kept constant, except the pressure at the outlet. Tlie... 

Figure 9 Temperature of the reaction mixture, T, and of the coolant, Ta, in the plug flow reactor for sulfur dioxide oxidation according to Johannessen and Kjelstrup ...

The reverse-flow chemical reactor (RFR) has been shown to be a potentially effective technique for many industrial chemical processes, including oxidation of volatile organic compounds such as propane, propylene, and carbon monoxide removal of nitrogen oxides sulfur dioxide oxidation or reduction production of synthesis gas methanol formation and ethylbenzene dehydration into styrene. An excellent introductory article in the topic is given by Eigenberger and Nieken on the effect of the kinetic reaction parameters, reactor size, and operating parameters on RFR performance. A detailed review that summarizes the applications and theory of RFR operation is given by Matros and Bunimovich. 

The reason for limiting the temperature in sulfur dioxide oxidation is based on two factors excessive temperatures decrease the catalyst activity, as just mentioned, and the equilibrium yield is adversely affected at high temperatures. This last point is the important one in explaining the need to maintain the temperature level in the dehydrogenation of butene. Still other factors, such as physical properties of the equipment, may require limiting the temperature level. For example, in reactors operated at very high temperatures, particularly under pressure, it may be necessary to cool the reactor-tube wall to preserve the life of the tube itself. 

Example 13-5 Using the one-dimensional method, compute curves for temperature and conversion vs catalyst-bed depth for comparison with the experimental data shown in Figs. 13-10 and 13-14 for the oxidation of sulfur dioxide. The reactor consisted of a cylindrical tube, 2.06 in. ID. The superficial gas mass velocity was 350 lb/(hr)(ft ), and its inlet composition was 6.5 mole % SO2 and 93.5 mole % dry air. The catalyst was prepared from -in. cylindrical pellets of alumina and contained a surface coating of platinum (0.2 wt % of the pellet). The measured global rates in this case were not fitted to a kinetic equation, but are shown as a function of temperature and conversion in Table 13-4 and Fig. 13-13. Since a fixed inlet gas composition was used, independent variations of the partial pressures of oxygen, sulfur dioxide, and sulfur trioxide were not possible. Instead these pressures are all related to one variable, the extent of conversion. Hence the rate data shown in Table 13-4 as a function of conversion are sufficient for the calculations. The total pressure was essentially constant at 790 mm Hg. The heat of reaction was nearly constant over a considerable temperature range and was equal to — 22,700 cal/g mole of sulfur dioxide reacted. The gas mixture was predominantly air, so that its specific heat may be taken equal to that of air. The bulk density of the catalyst as packed in the reactor was 64 Ib/ft. ... 

Conventional industrial processes operate continuously and at steady state. Steady-state operation, however, is sometimes less economical, particularly in cases where considerable energy effects are encountered. For example, classical sulfur dioxide oxidation processes involve a large reactor-heat exchanger system to force conversion of the reactant to an acceptable level. By non-steady-state operation, the reactor volume can be considerably diminished. Unconventional operation modes are much more sensitive than conventional steady-state modeling. Very advanced dynamic modeling concepts are thus needed. 

Product removal during reaction. Sometimes the equilibrium conversion can be increased by removing the product (or one of the products) continuously from the reactor as the reaction progresses, e.g., by allowing it to vaporize from a liquid-phase reactor. Another way is to carry out the reaction in stages with intermediate separation of the products. As an example of intermediate separation, consider the production of sulfuric acid as illustrated in Fig. 2.4. Sulfur dioxide is oxidized to sulfur trioxide ... 

Nickel sulfate also is made by the reaction of black nickel oxide and hot dilute sulfuric acid, or of dilute sulfuric acid and nickel carbonate. The reaction of nickel oxide and sulfuric acid has been studied and a reaction induction temperature of 49°C deterrnined (39). High purity nickel sulfate is made from the reaction of nickel carbonyl, sulfur dioxide, and oxygen in the gas phase at 100°C (40). Another method for the continuous manufacture of nickel sulfate is the gas-phase reaction of nickel carbonyl and nitric acid, recovering the soHd product in sulfuric acid, and continuously removing the soHd nickel sulfate from the acid mixture (41). In this last method, nickel carbonyl and sulfuric acid are fed into a closed-loop reactor. Nickel sulfate and carbon monoxide are produced the CO is thus recycled to form nickel carbonyl. 

A derivative of the Claus process is the Recycle Selectox process, developed by Parsons and Unocal and Hcensed through UOP. Once-Thm Selectox is suitable for very lean acid gas streams (1—5 mol % hydrogen sulfide), which cannot be effectively processed in a Claus unit. As shown in Figure 9, the process is similar to a standard Claus plant, except that the thermal combustor and waste heat boiler have been replaced with a catalytic reactor. The Selectox catalyst promotes the selective oxidation of hydrogen sulfide to sulfur dioxide, ie, hydrocarbons in the feed are not oxidized. These plants typically employ two Claus catalytic stages downstream of the Selectox reactor, to achieve an overall sulfur recovery of 90—95%. 

The increasing number of atomic reactors used for power generation has been questioned from several environmental points of view. A modern atomic plant, as shown in Fig. 28-3, appears to be relatively pollution free compared to the more familiar fossil fuel-fired plant, which emits carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide, oxides of nitrogen and sulfur, hydrocarbons, and fly ash. However, waste and spent-fuel disposal problems may offset the apparent advantages. These problems (along with steam generator leaks) caused the plant shown in Fig. 28-3 to close permanently in 199T. 

This process includes two main sections the burner section with a reaction chamber that does not have a catalyst, and a Claus reactor section. In the burner section, part of the feed containing hydrogen sulfide and some hydrocarbons is burned with a limited amount of air. The two main reactions that occur in this section are the complete oxidation of part of the hydrogen sulfide (feed) to sulfur dioxide and water and the partial oxidation of another part of the hydrogen sulfide to sulfur. The two reactions are exothermic ... 

In the second section, unconverted hydrogen sulfide reacts with the produced sulfur dioxide over a bauxite catalyst in the Claus reactor. Normally more than one reactor is available. In the Super-Claus process (Figure 4-3), three reactors are used. The last reactor contains a selective oxidation catalyst of high efficiency. The reaction is slightly exothermic ... 

Example 4.5 Suppose the recycle reactor in Figure 4.2 is used to evaluate a catalyst for the manufacture of sulfuric acid. The catal5Tic step is the gas-phase oxidation of sulfur dioxide ... 

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