Sulfur removal from municipal gas using magnesium oxides and a magnesium oxide/silicon dioxide composite

Magnesium oxides (MgOs) were synthesized by polyol-meditation thermolysis, hydrothermal, and aerogel methods and utilized to remove sulfur compounds from municipal gas. The capacity to remove methyl mercaptan (291 mu mol/mol) from methane was evaluated by using an adsorption breakthrough method at different temperatures. Then, to improve the sulfur removal capacity, a MgO-SiO2 composite was developed using the aerogel method and its breakthrough capacity was compared to those of the MgOs. The synthesized MgOs and MgO-SiO2 composite were characterized by XRD, BET, TGA, and HR-TEM. The MgO prepared by the aerogel method had the highest surface area and sorptioh capacity among the as-synthesized MgOs. Furthermore, the sulfur sorption capacity of the MgO-SiO2 composite prepared by the same aerogel method as MgO was three times higher than the aerogel MgO even though the sorption capacity of SiO2 was negligible. (C) 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.