Enhanced sulfur removal by a tuned composite structure of Cu, Zn, Fe, and Al elements

Waleed Mohammad Zahid; Mohamed Abdelhalim Othman; Ahmed Elhag Abasaeed

doi:10.1016/j.jhazmat.2017.02.050

Enhanced sulfur removal by a tuned composite structure of Cu, Zn, Fe, and Al elements

J Hazard Mater. 2017 Jun 5:331:273-279. doi: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2017.02.050. Epub 2017 Feb 28.

Authors

Waleed Mohammad Zahid¹, Mohamed Abdelhalim Othman¹, Ahmed Elhag Abasaeed²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Civil Engineering, King Saud University, PO Box 800, Riyadh 11421, Saudi Arabia.
² Department of Chemical Engineering, King Saud University, PO Box 800, Riyadh 11421, Saudi Arabia. Electronic address: abasaeed@ksu.edu.sa.

PMID: 28273577
DOI: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2017.02.050

Abstract

Several combinations of high sulfur affinity elements of Cu, Zn, Fe, and Al were used to prepare sorbent materials that remove hydrogen sulfide (H₂S) from air contaminated streams. The combination of these four elements in composite crystallinity structure resembling hydrotalcite-like and aurichalcite-like compounds showed excellent H₂S uptake. Further tuning of the relative ratio among these elements resulted in outstanding H₂S uptake. XRD revealed that the final sorbent material was featured by crystallinity structure that had two adjacent lower reflection angles. The experimental test showed H₂S uptake was around 39% of the sorbent material weight when the concentration of H₂S in the outlet was less than 0.5% of its concentration in the inlet. The sorbent material showed high sulfur removal efficiency at ambient temperature without prior calcination.

Keywords: Hydrogen sulfide; Sorbent material; Sorption; Sulfur.