รจน์กมล สมุทรเพ็ชร. Removal of Hydrogen Sulfide in Biogas using Biological Treatment. Master's Degree(Biotechnology). King Mongkut's University of Technology Thonburi. KMUTT Library.. : King Mongkut's University of Technology Thonburi, 2009.
Removal of Hydrogen Sulfide in Biogas using Biological Treatment
Abstract:
Impurity of biogas with hydrogen sulfide is a major barrier for biogas utilization due to its
corrosive property. Biological treatment is an alternative method to remove H2S from
biogas with low toxic final disposal and positive environmental impact. This work was
focused to study an effect of environmental factors (dissolved oxygen and pH) and sulfide
loading rate (SLR) including gas retention time (GRT) on efficiency of hydrogen sulfide
removal using bioreactor packing with plastic rings. Microorganism was attached and
acclimatized on plastic materials packing in column ofbioreactor. Reactor performance and
the end product amounts of elemental sulfur and other forms of sulfur were monitored. The
culture required 90 days of acclimatization period with high concentration of 1500 ppm
hydrogen sulfide. Most of microorganisms in bioreactor were gram negative, 1-2 Um size
of rod shape morphology and used inorganic sodium carbonate as carbon source under
aerobic condition. The microbial characters were similar to Thiobacillus sp.
The environmental factors experiments were carried out into 2 sets at various dissolved
oxygen (DO) values of 0.5, 1.0, and 1.5 mg/l and various pH values of 5, 6, 7,8 and 9. The
concentration of inlet hydrogen sulfide into biofilter was constant at 1,500 ppm and the
flow rate of gas entered upflow to packed bed at 0.5 l/min. Liquid medium was flown
downward from holding tank at flow rate of 0.35 l/min. Under the study of effect of DO,
this biofilter can reach maximum efficiency to remove H2S up to 85 % at DO 1.0 mg/l
within 6 hrs. Removal efficiencies are slightly different at DO 0.5 and 1.5 mg/l. Elemental
sulfur as end products was presented in large amount of 53.42 % at limit oxygen condition
at DO 1.0 mg/l and pH 6.5 +- 0.05. Furthermore, when study the effect of pH, it was found
that the optimum pH was 8, maximum efficiency of H2S removal reached up to 90% and
maximum percentage of sulfur was 49.79% at control DO 1.0 +- 0.05 mg/L Less amounts of
sulfate and sulfide were found in this condition. The optimum DO and pH at 1.0 mg/l and
8, respectively, were applied to control sulfide removal at various sulfide loading rates and
GRT. The maximum efficiency of H2S removal achieved in this study was 88 % at loading
rate and GRT of 54.27 mg/l/hr and 2.31 min, respectively. The sulfide was converted to
elemental sulfur with 49.37 %. At the same GRT (contacted time), the efficiency of H2S
removal of immobilized cells in biofilter was declined when increased sulfide loading rate.
Efficiency of H2S removal at GRT 2.31 min was higher than GRT 1.65 min even applying
with H2S concentration at 1500 and 3000 ppm.
In the biological treatment of HzS in biogas, it was noticed that the important factors
involving in removal efficiency and production of elemental sulfur were DO, pH, HzS
concentration, sulfide loading rate, and GRT.