Modeling SOx trapping on a copper-doped CuO/SBA-15 sorbent material

A mixture of SO2 and air was continuously injected in a fixed bed reactor containing a CuO/SBA-15 sorbent material and submitted to an isothermal temperature between 325 and 400 degrees C. The SO2 emissions were measured at the exit of the reactor. Different isothermal temperatures, different injected SO2 concentrations and different sorbent masses, all representative of industrial conditions, were tested. The purpose of the paper was to propose efficient global models which simulate the breakthrough curves whatever the experimental conditions. A simplified model was first considered assuming that the oxidation and trapping processes can occur on each copper site. The values of the four kinetic parameters which are involved were determined solving this model using Scilab software and an optimization routine. Because this model failed to reproduce in a satisfying way the breakthrough curves for different sorbent masses, a second model was introduced which involves surface and bulk trapping sites and six kinetic parameters. The breakthrough curves simulated with this second model following the same resolution techniques were in better agreement with the experimental ones, whatever the experimental conditions. For comparison, a simulation of the breakthrough curves returned by a model with bulk diffusion was presented.