Capturing H₂S(g)by In Situ-Prepared Ultradispersed Metal Oxide Particles in an Oilsand-Packed Bed Column

The current oil recovery and upgrading processes contribute directly to air pollution problems. H 2 S (g) is considered one of the major gaseous pollutants in oil recovery and processing. The aim of this study is to investigate the feasibility of methods aimed at the in situ capture of H 2 S (g) and its conversion into an environmentally neutral final product. In this work, we tested the sorption of H 2 S (g) into different in situ-prepared colloidal metal oxides in an oilsand matrix under recovery conditions, namely, ZnO, CuO, NiO, and Al 2 O 3 . In addition, the effect of metal oxide concentration and reaction temperature on H 2 S (g) reactivity was evaluated. Furthermore, commercially available ZnO nanoparticles were tested for comparison. Except for Al 2 O 3, all the considered metal oxides reacted stoichiometrically with H 2 S (g) at the selected temperature and pressure. An increase in the metal oxide concentration favored the removal of H 2 S (g) . The in situ-prepared ZnO ultradispersed particles were found to be more reactive than the commercial nanoparticles, as a result of their dispersion ability and intrinsic reactivity.