Hydrogen Production through Thermal Decomposition of Hydrogen Sulfide: Modification of SRU Process to Produce Ultra-Pure Hydrogen

The main goal of this research is modification of Claus process to produce ultra-pure hydrogen through hydrogen sulfide decomposition. The furnace and catalytic reactors in the Claus process are equipped with coil and hydrogen perm-selective membrane tubes. In the proposed structure, hydrogen is produced in the coil furnace and separated from gas stream in the membrane reactors. The conventional and proposed processes are modeled based on the mass and energy balance equations at steady state condition. To prove the accuracy of developed model and considered assumptions, the simulation results of conventional process are compared with the available plant data. In addition, to achieve maximum sulfur recovery and hydrogen production, the optimal operating condition of the proposed process is calculated considering operational and environmental constraints by Genetic algorithm. Based on the simulation results, the rate of hydrogen production in the conventional and proposed furnaces are 2.03 and 6.77 kmol.h-1...