Mechanisms of non-equilibrium dissociation of hydrogen sulfide in low-temperature plasma

Summary form only given. Hydrogen sulfide (H
₂
S) is a byproduct of oil refinement and comprises a significant portion of natural gas deposits. Therefore, efficient H
₂
S treatment and utilization are crucial to the oil and gas industry. The minimum dissociation energy of H
₂
S (into hydrogen and sulfur) is only 0.2 eV/molecule. Such low energy requirement of dissociation of H
₂
S into sulfur and hydrogen is important commercially. Such prospects are particularly important for oil industry, which consumes large amounts of hydrogen in oil hydro-desulfurization for production of low sulfur fuels and could benefit from both low cost method of H
₂
S utilization and local hydrogen production.The process of hydrogen sulfide, dissociation was studied in a non-equilibrium pulsed discharges at high and moderate overvoltage. Discharge geometry allowed to switch from streamer to spark mode. Separate series of experiments were conducted for dielectric barrier discharge geometry. An energy cost of H
₂
S dissociation was measured at low pressure conditions. Comparison of these results with recent results from gliding arc "tornado" (GAT)1 discharges allows to extract basic mechanisms which control H
₂
S dissociation in the discharge. These results are particularly important for the oil industry as it considered economically feasible to industrially implement dissociation technology that has energy requirement of undter 1 eV/molecule. These findings allow for further development, optimization, and scaling of reactors based on direct plasma dissociation of hydrogen sulfide.