Effect of Pore Texture and Surface Chemistry on SO2 Removal by Activated Carbon in Fluidized Bed

In order to find out the influence factors of SO₂ removal efficiency with activated carbons, five kinds of powder activated carbons which have different physicochemical characteristics were choosed. As desulfurizer, every kind of them was used to remove SO₂ from flue gas in a fluidized bed reactor. Their physicochemical characteristics were determined by N₂ adsorption isotherm at 77 K, elemental analysis and Boehm titration. The results show that the activated carbons prepared from different precursors by different activation methods have different pore texture and surface chemistry. The removal results indicate that there isn't any correlation between the conversion of SO₂ and the pore texture such as specific surface area, microspore volume and average pore width. But the conversion increases with increasing the total surface basicity, except for activated carbon CAC which has the most surface basic groups. The more ash content in CAC may result in the lower conversion compared to activated carbon MAC1. Therefore the surface chemistry is the most important influence factor in desulfurization using powder activated carbons in fluidized bed reactor.