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Int. J Sci. Emerging Tech Vol‐6 No 1, July 2013
A Novel Selective Flue Gas SO2 Removal with
an Amine Absorbent
H.Mehrara*1, M.R.Shishesaz 1, B.Rouzbehani 1
  1HSE Department of Abadan Institute of Technology Petroleum University of Technology
North Bowardeh, Abadan, Iran
*1
H.Mehrara@ymail.com
shishesaz@put.ac.ir
B.Roozbehani@gmail.com
Abstract— Wet flue gas desulfurization (WFGD) is the
most widespread one among all SO2 removal methods.
A novel desulfurization method is presented throughout
this paper in which an amine based absorber is used to
reduce SO2 concentration, from 8000ppm to less than
200 ppm. In this study, the selectivity of the new
desulfurization method with consideration of
operational parameters such as: SO2 concentration,
column pressure, temperature of absorption process
and final released SO2 emission are investigated in a
steady-state condition. According to the experiments,
sulfur dioxide which was in range of 4000 ppm to 8000
ppm in gas mixture. and was reduced to less than 200
ppm and 1000 ppm respectively was reduced from
4000-8000ppm to an amount of less than 200 ppm in the
outlet of the pilot. During the scrubbing process, SO2
absorption was performed in atmospheric pressure and
a temperature between 52 to 73 degrees Celsius.
influences of PH, gas to liquid ratio (G/L) and the
stripper temperature at certain condition are
investigated.
Keywords—  Selective, desulfurization, amine, absorption,
pilot plant.
1. Introduction
As sulphur dioxide is a major atmospheric pollutant
generating acid deposits, its abatement in flue gases
is of significant industrial concern [1,2]. Combustion
of fossil fuels in power plants, incinerators, boilers,
roasting of sulfide ore in metallurgy and sulfuric acid
industry are the major sources of sulfur oxides. Large
part of sulfur oxides is also added in air due to
volcanic eruption. cause of global environmental
problems such as air pollution and acid rain [3,4].
Due to presence of moisture in atmospheric air these
oxides react with moisture and forms sulforic acide
The oxides react in the atmosphere forming sulfuric
acid, which leads to acid rain. Because of the
lowering of the permissible emission limits, there has
been a rising interest in new treatment processes for
absorbing gaseous SO2, using various reactants [5].
__________________________________________________________________________
International Journal of Science & Emerging Technologies
IJSET, E‐ISSN: 2048 ‐ 8688
Copyright © ExcelingTech, Pub, UK (http://excelingtech.co.uk/)
Many processes have been developed, untill now.
Among them limestone, calcium hydroxide and
magnesium hydroxide slurries, sodium hydroxide
solutions, and some organic solvents are used as
absorbent in those processes [6-8].The most well-
known flue gas desulfurization processes are mainly
based on scrubbing with limestone slurries of the flue
gas. These are known as non-regenerative processes,
[1, 9-10]. Typically, the byproduct is either discarded
in a landfill or converted into gypsum for use in
wallboard and cement manufacturing. Disposal in a
landfill requires a large initial capital investment as
well as significant resources to maintain the landfill
throughout the life of the plant [11].
There are also regenerative SO2 removal processes
like Wellmann-Lord and the citrate processes [9, 12]
In these processes, SO2 is absorbed by aqueous
solution, then recovered from the SO2 rich solution
either as SO2 by steam stripping or as elemental
sulfur by reacting to H2S[12-14].
The selectivity of this process with high performance
separate this process from others, which can have lots
of usage in industries. In this process Sulfur, in the
form of sulfur dioxide (SO2 ) is recovered, which can
be used in bleaching as a feed chemical, hydrosulfite
manufacture, for pH adjustment and residual
peroxide destruction. The recovery and recycling of
sulfur are being aided by the commercial introduction
of regenerable selective SO2 scrubbing from gas
streams. This new process can reduce emissions to air
while providing a new tool to solve the recycling
puzzle [15].
2. Theoretical considerations
In water solution, dissolved SO2 undergoes reversible
hydration and ionization to produce bisulphite and
sulfite according to the following equations.
SO2(g)↔SO2(aq) (1)
SO2(aq)+H2O(L)↔H2SO3(L) (2)
H2SO3(L)↔HSO3-+H+↔SO2+2H+ (3)
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Int. J Sci. Emerging Tech Vol‐6 No 1, July 2013

Adding the amine, to the water increases the quantity solutions were prepared with distilled water. The CO2
of SO2 dissolved. According to equation (4), the and N2 gases were commercial grades with a purity of
buffer drives the above equilibria to the right by 99.99%, and the SO2 gas was used with a high purity
of 99.9%. All these components are mixed in a
reacting with the hydrogen ions to form ammonium
collector designed for this purpose. Figure 1 shows a
salts. The overall reaction, indicates that as the scheme of the pilot plant employed in the
concentration of SO2 in the feed gas increases, the experiments. The absorber and regenerator, which
equilibrium moves to the right, i.e. the quantity of were made of 316 stainless steel with an internal
SO2 dissolved in the rich solvent increases. Thus, the diameter of 15 cm, and a height of 1.5 (m) are used.
scrubbing of more concentrated gas streams requires
a less than the proportional increase in solvent
circulation rate. Since the gas volume, and therefore
the gas side equipment, remains constant, a relatively
small total cost increase is caused by an increase in
feed SO2 concentration.

R1R2R3N + H+ R1R2R3NH+    (4) 

3. Experiment
The tests were done in an experimental pilot plant.
The construction of the plant was designed
specifically to improve absorption. The pilot plant is
made up of a packed column containing metal grid
packing. The plant is specially designed for the
experiments and uses an amine absorber with an
innovative formulation. In the plant, the absorption
tower, with a diameter of 15cm and a height of
150cm was designed, and the experiments were done
using the gas to liquid ratio ranging from 375 (V/V)
to 500(V/V).
A valve is supplied in the path between deception
tower and the storage tank, by opening which;
desorption tower is filled with solvent. Two 2000 (w)
elements controlled by a thermo set are used in the
desorption tower which heats up the solvent to 120
°C. This cause the pressure increase up to 0.8 (bar).
At the top of this tower, a thermocouple is placed to
measure the temperature and set the top temperature
and pressure at a favorable point. A pump is placed
below the supply tank, stripper and absorption tower
controlled by a thermo controller. A cooler is
designed after stripper tower which leads the solvent
enters the sell & tube heat exchanger to reduce
reciprocating absorber temperature to about 60-65
degrees Celsius before entering the absorption tower.
Before pump 2 sprays solvent in the absorption tower
on packing, flow is adjusted by an adjustable
rotameter.
Figure 1. The schemic of SO2 scrubbing pilot plant.
4. Results and discussions
As SO2 is an acidic gas, the increase of pH of
absorption solution is favorable to the absorption.
[16]. Aquas amine compounds have base properties
so its pH affects the absorption process significantly.
Figure 2 indicates that at a certain operational
condition, desorption temperature of 120 ºC, a G/L
ratio of 375 and SO2 concentration of 6200 ppm.
The PH value of the absorption agent is adjusted by
changing the proportion between sulfuric acid and
amine. The desulfurization efficiency increases
asymptotically with the increase in PH. In other
words By variation of PH. It is observed that the SO2
concentration has strongly changed in the outlet of
absorption tower. As it is shown in Figure 2 by
increasing absorbent PH, SO2 concentration
decreases quickly in the outlet of absorption tower.
The results indicate that the desulfurization efficiency
increases with an increase of the pH value. In low PH
value a decrease in the number of active groups for
absorption are seen, while a pH value that is too high
leads to an increase of volatile loss, so a suitable PH
value must be found.

The flow of solvent in the inlet of the absorption

column can be set from 100 to 400 milliliters per
minute. After entrance of the absorber, it is then sent
to the desorption column via a 750 (w) pump. Then
the absorber flow is preheated in the mentioned shell
and tube heat exchanger prior to entering the
desorption tower.

Feed gas is produced by using three gas cylinders, N2,

CO2 and SO2 and a boiler to produce steam. Aqueous
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Int. J Sci. Emerging Tech Vol‐6 No 1, July 2013

90 At constant liquid flow rate, an increase in the inlet

85 gas flow rate will decrease the gas film thickness, and
80 gas-liquid mass transfer area and coefficient increase
75 a little, which is favorable to absorb but on the other
70 hand, an increase in the inlet gas rate decreases the
gas-liquid contact time, which is harmful to the
η%

65
60 absorption and effects dominantly on efficiency
55 decrease.
50 When the SO2 inlet concentration was increased from
45 2400 ppm to 9000 ppm, the SO2 absorption efficiency
40 decreased from 94 % to 55%. The experimental
2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5 5.5 6 results shown in Figure 4 indicate that the efficiency
PH of absorption into amine solution decrease with an
increasing in SO2 concentration of the inlet gas. It is
Figure 2. Effect of PH on desulfurization in the obvious that by increasing the SO2 concentration the
average SO2 concentration of 6100 ppm, at 120 °C capability of solvent to absorb SO2 decrease and this
and G/L ratio of 375.
is due to absorbent saturation at higher concentration
70 [17]. When the SO2 concentration exceeds 7000 ppm,
the buffer capacity declines, while too low of an SO2
60
concentration in the solution would result in more
50 steam consumption in desorption [18].

40
η%

90
30 80

20 70

60
10
50
η%

0
300 340 380 420 460 500 540 580 40

G/L ratio 30

20
Figure 3. Absorption variation vs. Variation of G/L
in SO2 concentration of 6100 ppm, at 110 °C and PH 10
of 4. 0
95 100 105 110 115 120 125
100
Desorption temperature
95
90
85 Figure 5. Absorption variation vs. temperature
Variation in SO2 concentration of 6100 ppm, at 110
80
°C and PH of 4.
η%

75
70 Figure 5 shows that at 110 °C, the best performance
65 is achieved. At 100 °C, the bound between SO2 and
60 amine compound in absorbent cannot completely be
55 recovered so by increasing the temperature to 110 °C
50 better absorption capacity is reached. Experiment
2000 4000 6000 8000 10000 shows that by increasing temperature to 120 °C
SO2 inlet
absorption highly decrease from 79% to 63%. By
increasing the temperature from 100 °C to 120 °C the
Figure 4. Absorption variation vs. Variation of SO2 desorption pressure increase from 0.3 bar to 0.85 bar,
concentration, at 110 °C, G/L of 375 and PH of 4. which don’t permit the absorbent to desorb the
dissolved SO2.
It can be seen from Figure. 3, that the increase of gas
to liquid ratio, cause the efficiency decreases quickly.
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Int. J Sci. Emerging Tech Vol‐6 No 1, July 2013

Analysis of the Safety and Economy. The solvent in

the novel method has little toxicity, and absorption, 3500
and high absorption and operation is at atmospheric
pressure and temprature is below 110 ºC. 3000

Furthermore, sulfuric acid is added to decreases the

2500
volatility of amine and increase PH. Therefore, the
damage of the absorbent on air can be nearly ignored. 2000

SO2 ppm
One shoude consider the corrosion of equipmentat at
this pH. favorable PH for better stripping is obtained 1500
to be around 5, which has no danger but equipment
Inlet SO2
corrosion prevention should be considered [18]. 1000
outlet SO2
5. Selectivity investigation. 500

The selectivity of absorption to SO2 is presented in 0

0:00
0:20
0:30
0:45
1:00
1:25
2:00
3:10
3:30
3:50
4:15
4:35
4:50
5:05
figure 6 and figure 7 respectively. Clearly, the inlet
and outlet stream had little difference in CO2 Time
concentration.
Figure 7. SO2 variation in the Five hour plot of the
13
flue gas desulfurization
12.5
Table 1. operating condition for 5 hour testing.
12

Desorption Tower bottom P (bar)

Desorption Tower top P (bar)

solvent concentration (gr/lit)

11.5

Absorption tower T (° C )

Absorption tower P (kpa)

% CO2

desorbtion Top T
11
Inlet SO2
10.5 Inlet CO2

10 Outlet CO2

9.5
0:00
0:20
0:30
0:45
1:00
1:25
2:00
3:10
3:30
3:50
4:15
4:35
4:50
5:05

Time 2430 61 8 108 0.8 0.85 0.05

2600 60 8 105 0.75 0.8 0.05
Figure 6. CO2 variation in the five hour plot of the 2800 61 8 104 0.75 0.8 0.05
flue gas desulfurization
2470 59 8 107 0.8 0.85 0.05

Figure 7 shows that the SO2 concentration in the 2400 62 8 110 0.8 0.85 0.05
outlet of the desorption tower is approximately 3300 57 8 110 0.8 0.85 0.05
constant on the average of 270 ppm, which shows the 2480 58 8 116 0.85 0.9 0.05
performance of about 90%. Operating condition is 2536 55 8 110 0.8 0.85 0.05
shown in Table 1. According to this table any
2587 57 8 106 0.75 0.8 0.05
parameter my affect absorption and desorption are
2394 59 8 110 0.8 0.85 0.05
presented. As can be noted from this table
performance for the absorbent with the concentration 2426 61 8 109 0.8 0.85 0.05

of 0.05% (V/V) is good enough to arrange the 2242 60 8 107 0.8 0.85 0.05
experiment in a categorize the experiment as a 2250 59 8 105 0.75 0.8 0.05
selective high efficient desulfurization process. 2220 52 8 110 0.8 0.85 0.05

6. Conclusion

This paper has presented a new selective regenerative

flue gas desulfurization process with high
performance. In this study, four parameters were
investigated, which involved SO2 concentration in

Int. J Sci. Emerging Tech Vol‐6 No 1, July 2013
flue gas, desorption temperature, PH of absorption
and liquid to the gas ratio. Results showed that an
increase in SO2 concentration from 2400 to 7800
decreases the performance of absorption from 94% to
about 60 %, and desulfurization efficiency increases
very smoothly with increase in G/L value for more
absorbent and more contact area in the scrubber, but
by variation of PH, it is observed that the SO2
concentration has strongly changed in the outlet of
the absorption tower. It was shown that by increasing
PH the absorbent shows better performance and tends
to dissolve more SO2. The five-hour test also
confirmed the solvent selectivity by which the
absorbent showed very little CO2 interest in
comparison to SO2. This is good enough to categorize
the experiment in the experiment as a selective high
efficient desulfurization process.
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