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

这个小型企业创新研究(SBIR)第一阶段项目建议开发一种混合等离子体/超绝热惰性多孔介质反应器，将硫化氢转化为氢，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尝试从硫化氢中经济地提取氢，但都无济于事。每年生产的600万吨硫化氢通过克劳斯工艺加工成硫，同时损失更有价值的氢。初步的硫化氢过滤燃烧实验表明，超绝热部分氧化既能制氢又能制硫。在逆流反应器中，要燃烧的氧化剂/燃料混合物的方向周期性地循环，以创建一个长的高温等温区，提供必要的停留时间和温度，以克服硫化氢分解的热力学和动力学限制。具有平衡/非平衡性质的滑动弧光放电将成为产生非常活泼的离子和自由基离子的动力源和催化剂。将多孔介质逆流反应器固有的能量回收机制和滑动弧光放电等离子体的热/非热特性相结合，可以为硫化氢的有效转化提供手段。从商业角度来看，石油和天然气行业每年通过形成硫化氢来脱除含硫化合物的氢气成本估计为15亿美元。随着氢气的主要来源天然气价格上涨，预计这一成本将会上升。这一因素是天然气价格居高不下的部分原因，因为这些商业工厂与住宅客户竞争。一种可以从硫化氢中同时生产氢气和硫磺的工艺，不仅每年将为能源行业节省数亿美元，还将使美国的司机和居民天然气消费者受益。如果只有50%的硫化氢被回收转化为氢气，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.