摘要 |
<p>An improved method for reducing the hydrogen sulfide and hydrogen polysulfide content of liquid sulfur, wherein, the liquid sulfur is brought into contact with a solid degradation catalyst consisting of alumina or a cobalt-molybdenum impregnated alumina at 250.degree.F to 320.degree.F, preferably 270-275.degree.F, in the presence of a gaseous purge stream of air or oxygen enriched air. In addition to exhibiting a many fold increase in rate of reaction relative to the use of either the catalyst without a purge gas or the purge gas alone, the use of an oxygen containing purge gas (such as wet air) in combination with the catalyst (such as alumina) shows a significant improvement, when compared to the use of a dry nitrogen purge in combination with the catalyst under similar conditions, in the kinetics of both the conversion of the polysulfides to sulfide (rate constant of 0.611 for wet air vs. 0.409 for dry nitrogen at 300.degree.F) and the removal of hydrogen sulfide from liquid sulfur (rate constant of 0.877 in wet air vs. 0.62 for dry nitrogen at 300.degree.F).</p> |