Optimal Packing of a Rotating Packed Bed for H₂S Removal

Abstract

The existence of H2S in a system could lead to catalyst deactivation, pipeline corrosion, and environmental pollution. A rotating packed bed (RPB), a novel reactor with high mass transfer efficiency and small dimension, is employed in this study to remove H2S. For RPB, the most significant section for mass transfer is the end-effect zone of packing. A mathematical model for liquid flow in the packing is established to quantify the length of the end-effect zone. A simple and effective visual experimental method is then proposed to investigate the end-effect zone in the RPB. A gas-liquid mass transfer experiment is finally employed to confirm the validity of the proposed mathematical model. With the aid of this model, the length of packing of a RPB used for pilot-scale H2S removal is optimized. The optimized RPB removes 99.8% of H2S (15 vol % to 0.03 vol %) from the system. The proposed model can help optimize the design of a RPB reactor.