Scrubber for reactive gasses

Abstract

A method is disclosed which comprises maintaining a scrubber medium at a temperature in a range of -20°C to 85°C, the scrubber medium comprising nanoparticles of a reactive metal oxide material having first aerodynamic diameters of less than 250 nm that are adhered to carrier particles having second aerodynamic diameters in a range of 10 to 250 microns and that are inert relative to one or more background compounds, wherein a mass ratio of the reactive metal oxide to the carrier particles is in a range of 20% to 30%, and wherein the nanoparticles of the reactive metal oxide are adhered to the carrier particles by one or more of van der Waals and electrostatic forces. In a further step a gas mixture is contacted with the scrubber medium while the scrubber medium is maintained at the temperature, the gas mixture comprising a reactive compound and the one or more background compounds, the reactive compound comprising a gas-phase acid, the contacting causing the reactive compound to react with the reactive metal oxide material to convert the reactive compound and at least one metal oxide site on the nanoparticles to one or more metal-anion surface compounds. An apparatus, a composition and a refreshing method are also disclosed.

Description

[0001] Cross references to related applications [0002] This application claims the rights to U.S. Provisional Patent Application Serial No. 60 / 968,846 entitled "Scrubbers for Reactive Gases" filed on August 29, 2007, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference. Technical field [0003] The subject matter disclosed herein relates to the scrubbing of reactive gases from gas streams. Background technique [0004] For example, hydrogen sulfide (H 2 S), hydrogen chloride (HCl), ammonia (NH 3 The selective and effective removal of reactive gases such as) presents difficulties, especially in gas analyzer applications that require removal of such compounds to levels that are hardly detectable by gas analyzers. A mixture of binary copper carbonate, magnesium sulfate heptahydrate and non-asbestos talc can be used as a reactive scrubbing medium to remove H from the gas stream 2 S. Alternatively, a mixture of potassium permanganate supported on alumina particles can be ...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

These methods often do not selectively remove target compounds (such as H 2 S), can generate unwanted reaction by-products, can pass detectable amounts of target gas, can cause undesired fluidization of the medium and / or excessive temperature increase (permanganate), can cause the medium to act as entrained Migration of aerosols or particles or as evaporated gases from the condensed phase into the gas stream and / or may require the use of expensive media and / or equipment

Furthermore, the lower removal efficiency of these species encourages the use of excess scrubbing material

This increases scrubber cost and scrubber size beyond practically acceptable limits and / or causes unacceptably low scrubber field life and / or unacceptably high gas flow backpressure

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