Enhanced durability of high-temperature desulfurization sorbents for moving-bed applications

Chemical reactivity was determined at GECRD by measuring sorbent sulfur loading (defined as grams of sulfur absorbed per 100 g of fresh sorbent) in fresh and in cycled samples from a bench-scale reactor. Only formulations that exhibited a good balance of chemical and mechanical performance as fresh pellets were selected for further cyclic testing in the benchscale reactor system. Details of the bench-scale reactor and procedures have been given before (Ayala, 1991). The important aspect of the benchscale testing is that both absorption and regeneration were conducted in a packed-bed reactor simulating the time/temperature environment to which the sorbent would be exposed in a typical cycle of the full-scale moving-bed system. Absorption was carried out at 1000[degrees]F using any of three gas compositions, all having a deliberately high H[sub 2]S concentration (1 %) to accelerate testing. The oxidative regeneration was carried out between 1000 and 1250[degrees]F and 1--21% oxygen during the early phases of regeneration, and at 1400[degrees]F during the final phase simulating the temperature rise of the sorbent bed. Sixteen zinc titanate formulations were prepared as cylindrical extrudates. For all formulations, the calcination time was held constant at 2 hours. The following results were obtained: Formulations containing a 0.8more » Zn:Ti ratio produced mixtures of several stoichiometric titanates: Zn[sub 2]Ti[sub 3]O[sub 8], ZnTiO[sub 3], and Zn[sub 2]TiO[sub 4], with the relative amount of each depending on temperature. Formulations containing a 2.0 Zn:Ti ratio exhibited exclusively the Zn[sub 2]TiO[sub 4] structure. The higher calcination temperature of 1800[degrees]F significantly reduced the porosity available for chemical reactivity, while the lower calcination temperature of 1400[degrees]F produced, in some cases, formulations with traces of residual unreacted zinc oxide and anatase titanium dioxide.« less