Removal of minor concentration of H2S on MDEA-modified SBA-15 for gas purification

A promising adsorbent for H2S removal of minor concentration for gas purification was prepared by synthesizing and modifying the mesoporous molecular silica of SBA-15 with methyl-diethyl-amine (MDEA). Removal performance of minor concentration of H2S on the adsorbent was experimentally studied in a dynamic setup. The adsorbents showed good performance in removing H2S from gas steams. The loaded amines did not change the ordered structure of SBA-15, but enhanced its removing H2S. The adsorbents were characterized by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) and N-2 adsorption/desorption. Effect of the R (the loading ratio) of MDEA, effect of initial H2S concentration and effect of moisture on removal performance of H2S were studied respectively. With increase of the R of MDEA, the H2S removal performance of the adsorbent was improved obviously. When R of MDEA was 0.6, the removal performance was optimum. Initial H2S concentration had a large effect on the removal performance. Both breakthrough capacity and saturation capacity increased as the initial H2S concentration increased. In the presence of moisture, the experimental results showed the improvement in the removal performance of H2S. In addition, not only was the adsorbent regenerable by purging with the purified gas, but also the removal performance was stable in removal adsorption cycles. (C) 2011 The Korean Society of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.