Gasification and oxidation of thiophene in supercritical water fluids

Abstract

Abstract The paper deals with the gasification of thiophene in supercritical water (SCW) at a molar ratio of H2O:C4H4S = 1:0.107, a temperature of 873–1023 K, a pressure of 30 MPa, and a holding time of 150–600 s in a batch reactor. The gases of CO2, CO, H2, CH4, and H2S were detected in the composition of SCW gasification products. The maximum degree of thiophene gasification (>99.9%) was achieved at 1023 K and 600 s. The conversion of thiophene in SCW is described by a pseudo-first-order macro kinetic equation. It was revealed that the oxidation of thiophene in H2O/O2 mixture at uniform heating of the reactor (1 K·min−1) begins at T ≈ 400 K. The lack of O2 results in the formation of soot. It is shown that the formation of sulfuric acid during the oxidation of thiophene in the H2O/O2 mixture causes corrosion of stainless steel.