Abstract
The oxidation of sulfur dioxide over vanadium pentoxide catalysts represents a basic step in the sulfuric acid production process. In conventional sulfuric acid plants the SO2 oxidation represents the limiting step with respect to the SO2 emissions. Due to the fact that the SO2 oxidation is an equilibrium reaction, sulfuric acid plants always have SO2 emissions. In this work, a new process concept is presented, which uses the transient behaviour of the reaction in two reactors operating under unsteady conditions (Saturated Metal Phase reactor). Besides several advantages, which can increase the efficiency of the whole sulfuric acid process drastically, the SMP Reactor is a key component for an efficient operation of a sulfuric acid plant which reduces the emissions down to zero while keeping the necessary conditions for the hydrogenation unit installed downstream. For this purpose, a mathematical model is used, which describes the dynamic effects of the SO2 oxidation. The model has been experimentally verified in a Miniplant, which works with commercial catalyst pellets.