Study of biological processes of gas sweetening and sulfur recovery

فاقد چكيده

While burning hydrogen sulfide results in production and spreading of toxic sulfur dioxide, with due attention to environmental considerations the conversion of separated hydrogen sulfide to sulfur in sweetening process of natural gas is emphasized increasingly. Current and economic processes of gas sweetening and sulfur recovery like amine processes and then Claus process and oxidation-reduction processes in liquid phase in small scale designs, are expensive and uneconomic. With regard to these limitations and because of special properties of biological processes like occurring at ambient temperature and pressure, reduction of production of secondary pollutants and reduction of costs and necessary investments, these kinds of processes are specially considered by gas technology researchers since early 1980s, and even in recent years some of these processes like Shell-Paques process have been found extensively applicable in world gas technology. So in this paper biological processes in which gas sweetening and sulfur recovery are performed by use of microorganisms like Thiobacillus ferrooxidan have been studied and advantages and disadvantages of each method have been expressed in detail.