Ferrimagnetic ceramic adsorbents for cleanup of H2S from exhaust gases

Adsorbents that exhibit magnetic properties in addition to other required process-relevant characteristics open up new perspectives for the dry reduction and/or elimination of H2S and other sulfur compounds from exhaust gases. These adsorbents eliminate the sulfur compounds from exhaust gases by virtue of their coatings and their magnetic property which makes it possible the use of magnetically assisted and stabilized fluidization in an externally applied magnetic field. In the present paper, the feasibility of the sorptive function of porous ceramic ferrimagnetic beads is ensured by sol-gel coating of zinc oxide without the formation of Zn-Fe-oxides and without considerable decrease of available pore volume. The results of material characterization by SEM, Auger electron spectroscopy, X-ray and mercury-porosity measurements and the loading capacity of a H2S/N-2 model gas are presented and discussed. The resulting H2S loading of the functionalized adsorbent beads is more than 10 times larger than that of the starting material. (C) 2007 Chinese Society of Particuology and Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.