Acid Gas Converting to Organosulfur and Hydrogen in Methanol Thiolation Using Alkali Promoted Catalysts: Case Study

An acid gas stream was utilized instead of pure H2S as feedstock in the methanol thiolation reaction with Alkali/W/γ-Al2O3 catalysts. The catalysts were synthesized through incipient wetness impregnation and characterized by XRD, BET, and NH3-TPD methods. The catalytic tests were performed in a fixed-bed flow reactor for an acid gas with 12.2%mol. H2S at atmospheric pressure, 360 °C, H2S to methanol molar ratio of 2, and LHSV of 0.5 h−1. The results were then compared with the case in which pure H2S was used as feedstock. H2S conversion was lower in the acid gas feed than in pure H2S feed due to participation of catalysts in hydrocarbon reforming reactions. Cesium-promoted catalysts gave the best results. H2S in acid gas was converted about 92.8%. The yields were reported about 87.3% and 5.5% for dimethyl sulfide and methanethiol as organosulfur products respectively. The amount of hydrogen increased by about 110% in the reactor outlet.