Novel-doped zinc oxide sorbents for low temperature regenerable desulfurization applications

摘要

Eight metal oxide sorbents including transition metal doped ZnO/SiO₂ sorbents and ZnO/SiO₂ were prepared by incipient wetness impregnation for regenerable desulfurization applications at low temperatures (i.e. room temperature). Among them, copper-doped sorbent (Cu-ZnO/SiO₂) demonstrated the highest saturation sulfur capacity of 0.213 g sulfur/g ZnO (54% of the theoretical capacity), which is twice that of ZnO/SiO₂ sorbent. Compared with ZnO/SiO₂, Cu-ZnO/SiO₂ demonstrated superior desulfurization performance in a wide temperature range of 20–400°C. Due to the use of porous SiO₂ support, Cu-ZnO/SiO₂ is highly regenerable. It can be easily regenerated in air at low temperatures, ca. 300–550°C, which are much lower than the typical regeneration temperatures of commercial ZnO sorbents. Cu-ZnO/SiO₂ maintained its sulfur capacity during 10 cycles of regeneration/sulfidation. © 2010 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 2010