REMOVAL OF HYDROGEN SULFIDE FROM NATURAL GAS BY ELECTRON BEAM IRRADIATION

NATURAL GAS REPRESENTS 20% OF THE PRIMARY ENERGY RESOURCES OF THE UNITED STATES AND ACCOUNTS FOR ALMOST HALF THE ENERGY CONSUMED FOR RESIDENTIAL HEATING. 22% OF THE NATURAL GAS RESERVES IN THIS NATION ARE NOT USABLE BECAUSE THEY CONTAIN MORE THAN 4 PPM OF HYDROGEN SULFIDE (H2S). THIS CORRESPONDS TO 19 TRILLION CUBIC FEET OF THE KNOWN RESERVES. IT IS PROJECTED THAT 80 TRILLION CUBIC FEET OF THE UNDISCOVERED NATURAL GAS RESOURCES ARE ALSO CONTAMINATED WITH UNACCEPTABLE CONCENTRATIONS OF H2S. NATURAL GAS CONTAMINATED WITH H2S IS AN ENVIRONMENTAL HAZARD DUE TO THE TOXICITY OF H2S IN THE GAS ITSELF AND THE SULFUR-CONTAINING COMPOUNDS PRODUCED AND RELEASED DURING COMBUSTION. IN ADDITION, IT IS CORROSIVE TO PIPELINE SYSTEMS. CURRENT TECHNOLOGIES FOR H2S REMOVAL ARE COMPLEX AND COST BETWEEN 20 AND 26 CENTS PER MILLION STANDARD CUBIC FEET. THIS COST IS INDEPENDENT OF THE CONCENTRATION OF H2S. THE COST OF THE ELECTRON BEAM PROCESS, BASED ON ALL-SOLID-STATE ACCELERATORS, IS 6 CENTS PER MILLION STANDARD CUBIC FEET FOR NATURAL GAS CONTAINING 1000 PPM H2S. THE COST FOR THE ELECTRON BEAM PROCESS DECREASES TO 0.6 CENTS PER MILLION FOR NATURAL GAS CONTAINING ONLY 100 PPM. APPROXIMATELY 4.3 TRILLION CUBIC FEET OF THE NATURAL GAS RESERVES CONTAIN <100 PPM H2S AND 8.6 TRILLION CUBIC FEET CONTAIN <1000 PPM H2S. IN PHASE I THE EFFICIENCY OF H2S REMOVAL FROM NATURAL GAS BY ELECTRON BEAM IRRADIATION WILL BE DETERMINED. THESE PROOF-OF-PRINCIPLE EXPERIMENTS WILL BE PERFORMED ON AN EXISTING ALL-SOLID-STATE LINEAR INDUCTION ACCELERATOR. BASED ON THE DATA FROM THESE EXPERIMENTS, PHASE II DEMONSTRATION EXPERIMENTS WILL BE DESIGNED AND CONDUCTED TO DETERMINE THE TECHNICAL AND ECONOMIC VIABILITY OF USING ELECTRON BEAM IRRADIATION TO REMOVE H2S IN A FLOWING NATURAL GAS PIPELINE SYSTEM.