(532em) Characterization and performance of metal-oxide/Aluminum silicates catalysts to remove methyl mercaptan from natural gas

Methyl mercaptan (CH3SH) is one of several volatile organic sulfur compounds present in natural gas. These compounds are toxic and create operational problems during refining operations and environmental adverse impacts. Over the past few decades, chemical and physical processes have been developed to remove sulfur from natural gas streams. Improvements in performance and selectivity are still necessary. Specially for distributed conversion of natural gas to generate value-added products at the wellhead. Breakthrough experiments of methyl mercaptan using metal-oxide and aluminum silicate catalysts were performed with a packed bed reactor connected to a gas chromatography/mass spectrometry system. The design of experiments included pressure, temperature, and gas flow rate as factors impacting adsorbent/catalyst performance. The detailed characterization of the adsorbent/catalysts was carried out using BET, Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), Energy-Disperse X-ray spectrometry (EDS), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The best performing catalyst was Select HP, which is mainly composed of Copper and Zinc oxides. A breakthrough time of 384 minutes was observed, considering dimethyl sulfide (DMS) and dimethyl disulfide (DMDS) production. These results provided theoretical and experimental information to develop a new catalyst using other metal oxides to increase adsorption but reduce reactivity. An alumino-silicate (Halloysite Pure) is being impregnated with Copper, Zinc, Nickel, and Magnesium oxides. The impact of adding metal oxides on the alumino-silicate catalyst for the removal of methyl mercaptan from natural gas will be described as part of the presentation.