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H2S Decomposition into H2 and S2 by Plasma Technology: Comparison of Gliding Arc and Microwave Plasma

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Abstract

We studied hydrogen sulfide (H2S) decomposition into hydrogen (H2) and sulfur (S2) in a gliding arc plasmatron (GAP) and microwave (MW) plasma by a combination of 0D and 2D models. The conversion, energy efficiency, and plasma distribution are examined for different discharge conditions, and validated with available experiments from literature. Furthermore, a comparison is made between GAP and MW plasma. The GAP operates at atmospheric pressure, while the MW plasma experiments to which comparison is made were performed at reduced pressure. Indeed, the MW discharge region becomes very much contracted near atmospheric pressure, at the conditions under study, as revealed by our 2D model. The models predict that thermal reactions play the most important role in H2S decomposition in both plasma types. The GAP has a higher energy efficiency but lower conversion than the MW plasma at their typical conditions. When compared at the same conversion, the GAP exhibits a higher energy efficiency and lower energy cost than the MW plasma.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Scientific Research Foundation from Dalian University of Technology, DUT19RC(3)045. We gratefully acknowledge T. Godfroid (Materia Nova) for sharing the experimental data about the MW plasma. The calculations were performed using the Turing HPC infrastructure at the CalcUA core facility of the Universiteit Antwerpen (UAntwerpen), a division of the Flemish Supercomputer Center VSC, funded by the Hercules Foundation, the Flemish Government (department EWI) and the UAntwerpen.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Physics, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, 116024, People’s Republic of China

    Quan-Zhi Zhang

  2. School of Astronautics, Beihang University, Beijing, 100191, People’s Republic of China

    WeiZong Wang

  3. Total Research and Technology Feluy, Zone Industrielle Feluy C, 7181, Seneffe, Belgium

    Christophe Thille

  4. Research Group PLASMANT, Department of Chemistry, University of Antwerp, Universiteitsplein 1, 2610, Wilrijk, Antwerp, Belgium

    Annemie Bogaerts

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  1. Quan-Zhi Zhang
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  2. WeiZong Wang
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  3. Christophe Thille
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  4. Annemie Bogaerts
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Correspondence to Quan-Zhi Zhang.

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Appendix

Appendix

See Figs. 12, 13, 14 and Tables 3, 4, 5.

Fig. 12
figure 12

Electron impact cross sections of momentum transfer, attachment and ionization of H2S (a), momentum transfer and ionization of H2 (b) and H (c) as a function of electron energy. These cross are adopted from [21, 23]

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Fig. 13
figure 13

Calculated gas temperature distribution in a MW plasma, obtained from our 2D calculations, for a gas flow rate of 0.125 slm (left) and 0.4 slm (right), at 0.02 atm and 1000 W, with SEI of 105 and 35 eV/molec, respectively

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Fig. 14
figure 14

Gas temperature used in the 0D model for the MW plasma, as a function of gas flow rate, based on the 2D simulations of Fig. 13

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Table 3 Electron impact reactions included in the model, as well as their rate coefficients and the references where these data are adopted from
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Table 4 Ion-neutral and ion-ion reactions included in the model, as well as their rate coefficients and the references where these data are adopted from
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Table 5 Neutral reactions included in the model, as well as their rate coefficients and the references where these data are adopted from
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Zhang, QZ., Wang, W., Thille, C. et al. H2S Decomposition into H2 and S2 by Plasma Technology: Comparison of Gliding Arc and Microwave Plasma. Plasma Chem Plasma Process 40, 1163–1187 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11090-020-10100-3

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