Abstract
Sorption of sulfur dioxide by carbonaceous adsorbents in the presence of water vapor and oxygen results in the formation of sulfuric acid. The retention capacity of sulfur dioxide in this manner is much greater than that of physical adsorption. This article reports the experimental results on the sulfuric acid loading in coal reject-derived char. It is shown that both temperature and concentrations of sulfur dioxide and water vapor have significant effect on the sulfuric acid loading rate. Compared with the commercial-activated carbon, the coal reject char has lower sorption capacity but higher initial rate owing to the catalytic effect of oxides present in the char.