Desulfurization of carbonaceous materials
AssigneeOccidental Research Corporation
InventorAnn B. Tipton
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Solid carbonaceous material, especially coal or coal char, is desulfurized by treatment with a limited amount of hydrogen to convert the organic sulfur to sulfide sulfur at an elevated temperature. The thusly formed sulfide sulfur is then removed from the solid carbonaceous material by steam treatment or other means.
Claims31
A process for desulfurizing a solid carbonaceous material comprising treating a sulfur-bearing solid carbonaceous material having organic sulfur and having an initial total sulfur percent with a gas comprising hydrogen under conditions of temperature and time sufficient to transform said organic sulfur to inorganic sulfur and to produce a converted solid carbonaceous material, and controlling said treating so that the total sulfur percent of said converted solid carbonaceous material is at least about 80 percent of said initial total sulfur percent by controlling the amount of said hydrogen used;
- and treating said converted solid carbonaceous material to remove at least a portion of the thusly formed inorganic sulfur and to produce a solid carbonaceous material product.
A process for desulfurizing a solid carbonaceous material comprising treating a sulfur-bearing solid carbonaceous material having both organic sulfur and metal compounds with a gas comprising hydrogen under conditions of temperature and time sufficient to transform said organic sulfur to sulfide sulfur and to produce a converted solid carbonaceous material, and controlling said treating so that the total sulfur content of said converted solid carbonaceous material is essentially the same percent as that of said sulfur-bearing solid carbonaceous material by controlling the amount of said hydrogen used;
- and treating said converted solid carbonaceous material to remove the thusly formed sulfide sulfur and to produce a solid carbonaceous material product.
A process for desulfurizing a sulfur-bearing solid carbonaceous material comprising:
- a. treating a first sulfur-bearing solid carbonaceous material having both organic sulfur and metal compounds in a first desulfurization zone maintained at an elevated temperature with a gas comprising steam to produce a second solid carbonaceous material of lower sulfur content than said first solid carbonaceous material;
- b. treating said second solid carbonaceous material with a gas comprising hydrogen in a first conversion zone maintained at an elevated temperature to transform said organic sulfur to sulfide sulfur and to produce a third solid carbonaceous material containing said sulfide sulfur thusly formed, and maintaining the total sulfur content of said third solid carbonaceous material at essentially the same percent as that of said second solid carbonaceous material;
- c. treating said third solid carbonaceous material in a second desulfurization zone maintained at an elevated temperature with a gas comprising steam to remove at least a portion of the sulfide sulfur thereof and to produce a fourth solid carbonaceous material of lower sulfur content than said third solid carbonaceous material;
- d. treating said fourth solid carbonaceous material in a second conversion zone maintained at an elevated temperature with a gas comprising hydrogen to transform organic sulfur to sulfide sulfur and to produce a fifth solid carbonaceous material containing said sulfide sulfur thusly formed, and maintaining the total sulfur content of said fifth solid carbonaceous material at essentially the same percent as that of said fourth solid carbonaceous material;
- and
- e. treating said fifth solid carbonaceous material from said second conversion zone in a third desulfurization zone to remove at least a portion of the sulfide sulfur thereof and to produce a solid carbonaceous material product or lower sulfur content.
A process for desulfurizing a solid carbonaceous material comprising:
- a. treating a fresh solid carbonaceous material having both organic sulfur and metal compounds in a first desulfurization zone maintained at an elevated temperature with a gas comprising steam to produce a solid carbonaceous material of lower sulfur content;
- b. treating said solid carbonaceous material from said first desulfurization zone with a gas comprising hydrogen in a first conversion zone maintained at an elevated temperature to transform said organic sulfur to sulfide sulfur within said solid carbonaceous material wherein the total amount of hydrogen in said gas is less than about 10,000 scf of hydrogen per ton of said carbonaceous material treated with said gas in said first conversion zone;
- c. treating said solid carbonaceous material from said first conversion zone in a second desulfurization zone maintained at an elevated temperature with a gas comprising steam to remove at least a portion of the sulfide sulfur thereof and to produce a solid carbonaceous material of lower sulfur content;
- d. treating said solid carbonaceous material from said second desulfurization zone in a second conversion zone maintained at an elevated temperature with a gas comprising hydrogen to transform organic sulfur to sulfide sulfur within said solid carbonaceous material wherein the total amount of hydrogen in said gas is less than about 10,000 scf of hydrogen per ton of solid carbonaceous material treated with said gas in said second conversion zone;
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- e. treating said solid carbonaceous material from said second conversion zone in a third desulfurization zone to remove at least a portion of the sulfide sulfur thereof and to produce a solid carbonaceous material product of lower sulfur content.
A process for converting organic sulfur in a coal char to sulfide sulfur comprising treating a coal char having organic sulfur with a gas comprising hydrogen and up to about 2 mole percent hydrogen sulfide under conditions of temperature and time such that said organic sulfur is transformed to sulfide sulfur thereby producing a converted coal char, and controlling said treating so that the percent organic sulfur in said converted coal char is no greater than about 60 percent of the percent organic sulfur in said coal char before said treating, the percent sulfide sulfur in said converted coal char is much higher than the percent sulfide sulfur in said coal char before said treating, and the percent total sulfur in said converted coal char is the same or higher than the percent total sulfur in said coal char before said treating.
A process for converting organic sulfur in a coal char to sulfide sulfur comprising treating a coal char having organic sulfur with a gas comprising hydrogen under conditions of temperature and time such that said organic sulfur is transformed to sulfide sulfur thereby producing a converted coal char, and controlling said treating so that the percent organic sulfur in said converted coal char is no greater than about 80 percent of the percent organic sulfur in said coal char before said treating, and the percent sulfide sulfur in said converted coal char is greater than about 120 percent sulfide sulfur in the coal char before said treating, and the percent total sulfur in said converted coal char is about the same or higher than the percent toal sulfur in said coal char before said treating.
A process for converting organic sulfur in a sulfur-bearing solid carbonaceous material to inorganic sulfur comprising treating a sulfur-bearing solid carbonaceous material having organic sulfur with a gas comprising hydrogen under conditions of temperature and time such that said organic sulfur is transformed to inorganic sulfur within said solid carbonaceous material thereby producing a converted solid carbonaceous material, and controlling said treating so that an amount of hydrogen less than about 10,000 standard cubic feet per ton of said solid carbonaceous material is used.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.