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

该小型企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目提出开发一种混合等离子体/超绝热惰性多孔介质反应器，以将硫化氢改革为氢气，同时回收硫。在过去的一百年里，世界各地的研究人员一直在努力从硫化氢中经济地提取氢气，但无济于事。每年生产的600万吨硫化氢通过克劳斯工艺加工成硫，损失了更有价值的氢气。硫化氢过滤燃烧的初步实验表明，超绝热部分氧化既能产生氢气，又能产生硫。在逆流反应器中，待燃烧的氧化剂/燃料混合物的方向周期性地循环以产生长的高温等温区，提供克服硫化氢解离的热力学和动力学限制所需的必要停留时间和温度。具有平衡/非平衡特性的滑动电弧放电将用作电源和催化剂，用于产生非常活泼的离子和自由基。结合多孔介质逆流反应器的固有能量回收机制和滑动弧放电等离子体的热/非热性质，可以提供用于高效重整硫化氢的手段。商业上，石油和天然气工业通过形成硫化氢去除含硫化合物的氢的年成本估计为15亿美元。随着氢的主要来源天然气价格的上涨，预计这一成本将上升。这一因素是天然气价格高的部分原因，因为这些商业工厂与居民客户竞争。一种可以从硫化氢中生产氢气和硫的工艺不仅可以为能源行业每年节省数亿美元，而且还可以使美国的司机和天然气居民消费者受益。如果只有50%的硫化氢被回收为氢气，消费者每加仑汽油至少可以节省2.5美分。

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.