Removing carbonyl sulfide with metal-modified activated carbon

Abstract

A Cu-Co-K/activated carbon (AC) adsorbent has been developed for the removal of carbonyl sulfide (COS). The effects of COS concentration, reaction temperature and relative humidity were closely examined. A breakthrough of 33.23 mg COS·g⁻¹ adsorbent at 60°C, under 30% relative humidity and in presence of 1.0% oxygen was exhibited in the Cu-Co-K/AC adsorbent prepared. Competitive adsorption studies for COS in the presence of CS₂, and H₂S were also conducted. TPD analysis was used to identify sulfur-containing products on the carbon surface, and the results indicated that H₂S, COS and SO₂ were all evident in the effluent gas generated from the exhausted Cu-Co-K/AC. Structure of the activated carbon samples has been characterized using nitrogen adsorption, and their surface chemical structures were also determined with X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). It turns out that the modification with Cu(OH)₂CO₃-CoPcS-KOH can significantly improve the COS removal capacity, forming \mathrm{S}{\mathrm{O}}_{\mathrm{4}}^{\mathrm{2}-} species simultaneously. Regeneration of the spent activated carbon sorbents by thermal desorption has also been explored.

Keywords

carbonyl sulfide / activated carbon / removal / reactive adsorption

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. U1137603, 51268021 and 51368026), the National High Technology Research and Development Program of China (No. 2012AA062504) and the Applied Basic Research Program of Yunnan (Nos. 2011FB027 and 2011FA010).

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