Insights into the mechanism of H2S reactive adsorption over ZnO-CuO dispersed onto activated carbon

The kinetics of products formation during adsorption at low temperature of gaseous H2S onto zinc and/or copper oxides supported on activated carbon is dealt in this work. Sorbents with a fixed total metal content and variable Zn:Cu ratios were prepared by impregnation of a commercial activated carbon. H2S (100 and 3000 ppmv in N2) removal tests were run under dynamic conditions at 30 °C. Raw and spent sorbents were characterized via N2 porosimetry at –196 °C to determine BET surface area and pore size distribution. XPS and TPD tests performed on partially converted and spent sorbents allowed the speciation of adsorbed sulphur species