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Received for review February 7,1974 Resubmitted June 16,1975 Accepted October 28,1975
Kinetics of the Reaction between Sulfur Dioxide, Oxygen, and Cupric Oxide in a Tubular, Packed Bed Reactor John G. Yates’ and Robert J. Best Department of ChemicalEngineering, University College London, London WC 1E 7JE, England
In the reacting system described here the copper oxide was dispersed on particles of alumina, and the absorption of SO:! in the presence of oxygen at 350-450 OC was assumed to follow a two-step consecutive mechanism leading via cupric oxysulfate (CUO-CUSO~) to cupric sulfate. The results were fitted to a homogeneous dispersion model described previously in the literature to account for catalyst particle deactivation in packed beds. The rate coefficients of the two reactions were found in terms of the preexponential factors Ai, and the activation energies Ei. Thus: A I = 550.1 s-‘, El = 17.62 kJ/mol, A2 = 36.79 s-’, .E2= 14.54 kJ/mol.
Introduction In recent years a great deal of attention has been given to the problem of reducing the level of atmospheric pollution caused by the sulfur dioxide emissions from electrical power plants fired by fossil fuels, and several processes for the desulfurization of the flue gases from such plants have been developed. In one of these processes (Dautzenberg et al., 1971; McCrea et al., 1970) the flue gas is brought into contact with spheres of cupric oxide-impregnated alumina whereupon the SO2 present at low concentration (
