Method of recovering elemental sulfur from reactive gases containing sulfur dioxide and hydrogen sulfide

A method of recovering elemental sulfur from a reaction gas catalytically reactive to form elemental sulfur in a vapor state in an exothermic reaction, comprising the steps of:

• (a) passing said gas at a temperature within the activation range of said reaction downwardly through a first horizontal bed of a catalyst body maintained at a temperature within the activation temperature range for said reaction from an input side of said body toward a discharge side thereof, thereby forming a hot gas containing elemental sulfur in vapor state, said gas having a subatmospheric pressure;
• (b) partially condensing the sulfur in the vapor state of the hot gas of produced in step (a) and thereby partially condensing the sulfur from said gas by cooling said hot gas in contact with a cooling surface arranged within said body beneath said bed without cooling the bed thereabove, said cooling surface having a temperature about 100.degree. to 150.degree. C. below the temperature of the gas emerging from the bed thereabove but below the condensation temperature for sulfur and maintained by means of a cooling liquid flowing through a passage of which said surface forms a wall;
• (c) collecting and discharging the condensed and liquefied sulfur and thereby separating it from said hot gas immediately upon condensation;
• (d) passing the gas after the partial condensation of sulfur therefrom in step (b) into a further horizontal bed of said catalyst body located below the bed previously traversed by the gas and sustaining said exothermic reaction in said further bed to increase the sulfur-vapor content of the gas in the further bed;
• (e) repeating steps (b) through (d) for each of a plurality of catalyst beds disposed below said first bed and below one another;
• (f) discharging said gas after the last contact with a cooling surface at said discharge side of said body;
• and
• (g) maintaining the temperature of the gas in all said beds above that at which said catalytic reaction can proceed and above that at which elemental sulfur vapor is totally condensed from the reaction gases solely by the exothermicity of the reaction in each bed after the first bed.