Development of a new dry-desulfurization process by a non-thermal plasma hybrid reactor

To find out a new dry-type desulfurization process with high efficiency and cost performance, a hybrid-type reaction process combining pulsed streamer corona plasma and TiO(2) catalyst was developed in order to oxidize SO(2) to SO(3). Experiments of both gas-phase reaction and surface reaction were performed to elucidate oxidation characteristics. Experimental results show that the oxidation fraction Of SO(2) to SO(3) in the gas-phase reaction is below 5% at low temperatures (under 800 K). Similarly, when using TiO(2) only as catalyst and applying the pulsed streamer corona plasma, respectively, the oxidation fraction is not increased significantly. Moreover, when simply combining the gas-phase reaction and the surface reaction, the oxidation fraction can. reach and maintain only about 10% below 673 K. Contrary to the above two results, the oxidation fraction could-be increased significantly by adding H(2)O of about 0.2 vol %. Hydrogen peroxide was: demonstrated to have-better oxidation promotion characteristics in comparison to the addition of H(2)O and H(2)O + plasma. The oxidation fractions of 66% and 90% can be achieved, respectively, by adding a very small amount of H(2)O(2) and applying the pulsed streamer corona plasma in the reaction process. Finally, these experimental results confirmed our initial hypothesis that hydroxyl radicals (OH) enhance: the oxidation Of SO(2) to SO(3) in both the gas-phase reaction and the surface TiO(2).