H2S and CO2 are the main impurities in raw
natural gas, which needs to be purified before use. However, the comprehensive
utilization of H2S and CO2 has been ignored.
Herein, we proposed a fully resource-based method to convert toxic
gas H2S and greenhouse gas CO2 synchronously
into CO and elemental S by using a novel electrochemical reactor.
The special designs include that, in the anodic chamber, H2S was oxidized rapidly to S based on the I–/I3
– cyclic redox system to avoid anode passivation.
On the other hand, in the cathodic chamber, CO2 was rapidly
and selectively reduced to CO based on a porous carbon gas diffusion
electrode (GDE) modified with polytetrafluoroethylene and cobalt phthalocyanine
(CoPc). A high Faraday efficiency (>95%) toward CO was achieved
due
to the enhanced mass transfer of CO2 on the GDE and the
presence of the selective CoPc catalyst. The maximum energy efficiency
of the system was more than 72.41% with a current density of over
50 mA/cm2, which was 12.5 times higher than what was previously
reported on the H2S treatment system. The yields of S and
CO were 24.94 mg·cm–2·h–1 and 19.93 mL·cm–2·h–1, respectively. A model analysis determined that the operation cost
of the synchronous utilization of H2S and CO2 method was slightly lower than that of the single utilization of
H2S in the existing natural gas purification technology.
Overall, this paper provides efficient and simultaneous conversion
of H2S and CO2 into S and CO.