Performance and Reaction Mechanism of the Sulfur-Loaded Activated Carbon Mercury Sorbents for Natural Gas

A commercial sulfur-loaded activated carbon was used as raw material in the experiments. The physico-chemical properties of the sorbents before and after adsorption were characterized by surface area and porosity analysis, scanning electron microscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Mercury adsorption experiments were carried out on a fixed-bed experimental device. The results showed that after industrial deactivation, the specific surface area decreased, the surface of the support was destroyed and the oxygen functional groups on the surface and the content of non-oxidized sulfur decreased. The suitable mercury removal temperature is 70°C and the mercury removal efficiency decreases with the increase of mercury concentration. The main adsorption morphology of sulfur-loaded activated carbon is HgS and HgO.