Granular Iron Sulfide Capture Material for Sour Gas
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Solution Overview
Problem
The removal of hydrogen sulfide from gas streams using granular/solid scavengers is hindered by the material transforming into a monolithic mass, making it difficult, costly, and unsafe to remove spent capture material from vessels, requiring manual labor and posing safety risks.
Innovation Solution
A hydrogen sulfide capture material made from steel or iron, processed with hydrochloric acid and caustic solutions, resulting in a granular form with a high surface area, which maintains reactivity and ease of removal, utilizing flocculants and surfactants to enhance performance and prevent binding, allowing for efficient hydrogen sulfide uptake and conversion to elemental sulfur.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If granular/solid scavengers are used to remove hydrogen sulfide from gas streams, then hydrogen sulfide removal efficiency is improved, but the capture material transforms into a monolithic mass making removal difficult and costly
Solution Approach 1:
The invention maintains the capture material in granular form rather than allowing it to form a monolithic mass. The granular structure is preserved through controlled reaction conditions and material composition, enabling the spent material to be easily removed from the vessel without requiring manual breaking or chiseling operations.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention changes the physical state parameters of the capture material by controlling the reaction conditions and material composition to prevent the transformation from granular to monolithic form. This parameter control ensures the material remains in a free-flowing granular state even after hydrogen sulfide removal, solving the removal difficulty issue.
2Reliability
If granular/solid scavengers are used to remove hydrogen sulfide, then capture capacity is improved, but manual labor and safety risks increase due to difficult material removal
Solution Approach 1:
By maintaining the capture material as segmented granules rather than a monolithic mass, the invention enables rapid removal of spent material from the vessel. The granular form allows for easy discharge through standard vessel openings without requiring time-consuming manual breaking operations.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention employs disposable granular capture material that can be easily replaced. The material is designed to maintain its granular form throughout its service life, allowing for quick removal and replacement without expensive or time-intensive processing, making the overall system more economical despite the consumable nature of the material.
3Reliability
If capture material is used to remove hydrogen sulfide, then hydrogen sulfide uptake capacity is improved, but the material binds into large clumps requiring hazardous manual labor
Solution Approach 1:
The invention prevents the capture material from binding into large monolithic masses by maintaining it in a granular form through controlled composition and reaction conditions. This segmentation ensures that even spent material can be removed safely through standard vessel openings without requiring workers to enter confined spaces or perform hazardous manual breaking operations.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention converts the potential harm of material binding into a benefit by designing the capture material to intentionally remain granular and free-flowing. This design choice, while seemingly counterintuitive for a reactive material, actually improves safety by eliminating the need for hazardous manual intervention and allows for easier, safer operation and maintenance.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The capture material exhibits a faster reaction rate and greater hydrogen sulfide uptake capacity, reducing the frequency of replacement, minimizing labor and costs, and ensuring safe disposal, with the spent material being non-hazardous and easily removable, thus improving the efficiency and safety of hydrogen sulfide removal from natural gas streams.
Implementation Method 1
Material and method for the sorption of hydrogen sulfide
Data Source
AI summary
The various embodiments of the invention relates to the composition of a hydrogen sulfide capture material and the related method of manufacture. The hydrogen sulfide capture material is formed by solubilizing an iron source in acid to form an aqueous solution comprising iron chloride, neutralizing the aqueous solution with a caustic solution to form a neutralized solution, washing the neutralized solution to separate it into water and a slurry, forming a thickened slurry by removing additional water from the slurry, separating the thickened slurry to produce filtered water and a wet filter cake, and drying the wet filter cake to form granules. The hydrogen sulfide capture material of the present invention removes hydrogen sulfide for a longer time and at a faster rate than the materials of the prior art, thereby improving the efficiency and decreasing the cost of sour gas treatment.