Chemical Engineering Transactions (Jun 2013)
Selective Oxidation of H<sub>2</sub>S to Sulphur from Biogas on V<sub>2</sub>O<sub>5</sub>/CeO<sub>2</sub> Catalysts
Abstract
Ceria supported Vanadium-based catalysts were studied for the selective partial oxidation of H2S to sulphur at low temperature. The effect of vanadium content was investigated in the range 2.55 – 20 wt% V2O5 by catalytic activity tests carried out at different temperature. The samples were characterized by XRD and Raman Spectroscopy techniques. The Raman spectroscopy has confirmed highly dispersed vanadium for low V2O5 loading and monovanadate and crystalline forms at V2O5 loads higher > 10 wt%. Results of catalytic activity tests showed that the effect of the vanadium content has affected mainly the selectivity to sulfur, while the catalytic activity is very high for all the tested samples that showed high conversions of H2S (> 90 %) and very close to the thermodynamic values. The most promising catalyst was the sample with the highest Vanadium oxide load (20 wt% V2O5/CeO2) that showed 99 % of sulfur selectivity and equilibrium conversion even at 150 °C.
