STTR Phase I: PLASMA ASSISTED REFORMATION OF HYDROGEN SULFIDE TO HYDROGEN AND SULFUR

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project proposes to develop a hybrid plasma/superadiabatic inert porous media reactor to reform hydrogen sulfide into hydrogen, with the simultaneous recovery of sulfur. To no avail, researchers around the world have been trying for the past one hundred years to economically extract hydrogen from hydrogen sulfide. Six million tons of hydrogen sulfide produced each year is processed by the Claus process into sulfur with the loss of the much more valuable hydrogen. Preliminary experiments in filtration combustion of hydrogen sulfide show that superadiabatic partial oxidation is capable of producing both hydrogen and sulfur. In a reverse flow reactor, the direction of oxidizer/fuel mixture to be combusted is periodically cycled to create a long high temperature isothermal zone providing the necessary residence time and temperature needed to overcome the thermodynamic and kinetic limitations of hydrogen sulfide dissociation with. The gliding arc discharge, with equilibrium/non-equilibrium properties, will serve as a power source and a catalyzer for generating very reactive ions and radicals. Combining the intrinsic energy recuperation mechanism of the porous media reverse flow reactor and the thermal/non-thermal properties of the gliding arc discharge plasma can provide the means for efficient reformation of hydrogen sulfide. Commercially, the annual cost of hydrogen for removal of sulfurous compounds, via formation of hydrogen sulfide, by the petroleum and natural gas industry is estimated at $1.50 billion. This cost is expected to rise as the price of natural gas, the main source of hydrogen, increases. This factor is partly responsible for the high price of natural gas since these merchant plants compete with residential customers. A process that can produce hydrogen as well as sulfur from hydrogen sulfide will not only save the energy industry hundreds of millions dollars per year, but benefit American drivers and residential consumers of natural gas. If only 50% of hydrogen sulfide is recycled back to hydrogen, consumers could save at least 2.5 cents per gallon of gasoline.