(2016) Journal of Environmental Management_Insights into the adsorption capacity and breakthrough properties of a synthetic zeolite against a mixture of various sulfur species at low ppb levels

Vellingiri K., Kim K.-H., Kwon E.E., Deep A., Jo S.-H., Szulejko J.E.

(Academic Press) Journal of Environmental Management ISSN: 3014797 Vol.166 Issue. Article No. DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2015.10.053

The sorptive removal properties of a synthetic A4 zeolite were evaluated against sulfur dioxide (SO₂) and four reference reduced sulfur compounds (RSC: hydrogen sulfide (H₂S), methanethiol (CH₃SH), dimethyl sulfide (DMS, (CH₃)₂S), and dimethyl disulfide (DMDS, CH₃SSCH₃). To this end, a sorbent bed of untreated (as-received) A4 zeolite was loaded with gaseous standards at four concentration levels (10-100 part-per-billion (ppb (v/v)) at four different volumes (0.1, 0.2, 0.5, and 1 L increments) in both increasing (IO: 0.1-1.0 L) and decreasing volume order (DO: 1.0 to 0.1 L). Morphological properties were characterized by PXRD, FTIR, and BET analysis. The removal efficiency of SO₂ decreased from 100% for all concentrations at 0.1 L (initial sample volume) to ~82% (100 ppb) or ~96% (10 ppb) at 3.6 L. In contrast, removal efficiency of RSC was near 100% at small loading volumes but then fell sharply, irrespective of concentration (10-100 ppb) (e.g., 32% (DMS) to 52% (H₂S) at 100 ppb). The adsorption capacity of zeolite, if expressed in terms of solid-gas partition coefficient (e.g., similar to the Henry's law constant (mmol kg-1 Pa-1)), showed moderate variabilities with the standard concentration levels and S compound types such as the minimum of 2.03 for CH₃SH (at 20 ppb) to the maximum of 13.9 for SO₂ (at 10 ppb). It clearly demonstrated a notable distinction in the removal efficiency of A4 zeolite among the different S species in a mixture with enhanced removal efficiency of SO₂ compared to the RSCs. © 2015 Elsevier Ltd.

This study was supported by a National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MEST) (No. 2009–0093848 ). This work was carried out with the support of the “Cooperative Research Program for Agriculture Science & Technology Development (Project title: Study on model development to control odor from pigpen, Project No. PJ01052101)” Rural Development Administration, Republic of Korea. The third author also acknowledges the support made by a National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) Grant funded by the Korean Government (MSIP) (No. 2914RA1A004893 ).