Acid Gas Converting to Organosulfur and Hydrogen in Methanol Thiolation Using Alkali Promoted Catalysts: Case Study

An acid gas stream was utilized instead of pure H₂S as feedstock in the methanol thiolation reaction with Alkali/W/γ-Al₂O₃ catalysts. The catalysts were synthesized through incipient wetness impregnation and characterized by XRD, BET, and NH₃-TPD methods. The catalytic tests were performed in a fixed-bed flow reactor for an acid gas with 12.2%mol. H₂S at atmospheric pressure, 360 °C, H₂S to methanol molar ratio of 2, and LHSV of 0.5 h⁻¹. The results were then compared with the case in which pure H₂S was used as feedstock. H₂S conversion was lower in the acid gas feed than in pure H₂S feed due to participation of catalysts in hydrocarbon reforming reactions. Cesium-promoted catalysts gave the best results. H₂S in acid gas was converted about 92.8%. The yields were reported about 87.3% and 5.5% for dimethyl sulfide and methanethiol as organosulfur products respectively. The amount of hydrogen increased by about 110% in the reactor outlet.