Removal of H 2 S Biogas Using Synthesized Activated Carbon from Different Biomass Waste

Abstract

This project aims at the removal of H2S from biogas by adsorption using synthesized activated carbon. The effect of type of precursors, activation reagent and packed bed height were studied. Adsorption test was performed using a fixed bed filter filled with the produced activated carbon where the inlet biogas has H2S concentration of 930970 ppm. The AC was synthesized according to a previous study H.Sawalha, A.Bader, J.Sarsour, "Preparation of Activated Carbon through Pyrolysis of Agricultural Waste for Wastewater Treatment Applications". Three types of biomasses: almond shells, eucalyptus and coffee grains were collected, grinded, sieved, pyrolysed at 500°C and activated with chemical reagents KOH or ZnCl2. Two centimeter of each precursors activated with KOH were used in precursor’s effect study. H2S outlet concentration decreased to less than10 ppm for all samples. The best performance was for eucalyptus followed by almond shells and coffee grains. The outlet H2S concentration reached the inlet concentration in 182, 130, 9 minutes respectively. As for activation chemical, KOH has higher efficiency than ZnCl in which 2 cm of eucalyptus activated with KOH consumed 182 minutes while with ZnCl2 consumed 70 minutes only. In bed height effect study, 2, 4, 6 and 8 cm of coffee grains were used. Removal efficiency increased with amount of AC in which the outlet H2S concentration reaches the inlet concentration within 12, 42, 90 and 170 minutes respectively.

The main conclusion of the present study is that synthesized activated carbon could be successfully applied for removal of H2S from the biogas.