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Spectrophotometric determination of
sulphur dioxide and hydrogen sulphide in
gas phase by sequential injection...

Article in Analytica Chimica Acta · December 2001


DOI: 10.1016/S0003-2670(01)01364-2

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Analytica Chimica Acta 449 (2001) 189–197

Spectrophotometric determination of sulphur dioxide


and hydrogen sulphide in gas phase by sequential
injection analysis technique夽
M. Kass, A. Ivaska∗
Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry, Process Chemistry Group, Åbo Akademi University, FIN-20500 Turku-Åbo, Finland
Received 11 December 2000; received in revised form 24 August 2001; accepted 24 August 2001

Abstract
Methods for determination of H2 S and SO2 in gas phase have been developed. The methods are based on absorption of
the gases in scrubbing solutions and subsequent sequential injection analysis (SIA) determination of the absorbed gases. The
reagents used in the SIA measurements, pararosaniline for SO2 and nitroprusside for H2 S, are very specific for the analytes.
Absorbance of the reaction products is measured at 558 nm. The methods have been developed for determination of SO2 in
the range 1.6–8.0 g/m3 and H2 S in the range 5–15 g/m3 . The relative standard deviation of the determinations is less than
2.5% (n = 10). The methods developed are intended for on-line monitoring of H2 S and SO2 in gas generated when heating
coal at coke production. © 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Sequential injection analysis; Sulphur dioxide; Hydrogen sulphide; Spectrophotometric detection; Coke production

1. Introduction of H2 S is burnt to SO2 and elementary sulphur is


obtained according to the Claus reactions.
Iron ore concentrate and coke are the basic raw ma-
2H2 S + 3O2  2H2 O + 2SO2 (1)
terials for manufacturing pig iron. Coke is produced
by heating coal in a closed oven. The gas generated in
3
the cooking process contains H2 S among other com- 2H2 S + SO2  2H2 O + Sx (2)
ponents. H2 S and some other gaseous components are x
absorbed in a scrubbing unit. The scrubbing solution The individual concentrations of H2 S and SO2
is then distilled and the vapour is cracked in a cracking have to be known both before the gas mixture enters
reactor, over a nickel catalyst at 1100◦ C. In this pro- the cracking reactor and when it leaves the reactor,
cess H2 S remains unchanged while the other gases are in order to add a right amount of air to the gas mix-
cracked to their elements. An excess of air is added to ture. This is done in order to maximise the yield of
the reactor and the airflow is adjusted so that one-third elementary sulphur. The expected range of gas con-
centrations to be monitored are 1.6–8.0 g SO2 /m3 and
夽 This work was presented at the 3rd International Colloquium on
5.0–15.0 g H2 S/m3 . Determination of H2 S and SO2 in
Process Related Environmental Analytical Chemistry (PREACH),
Leipzig, Germany (4–7 October, 2000).
the coking plant gas is currently done by performing
∗ Corresponding author. Fax: +358-2-215-4479. manual titrations of the scrubbing solutions in which
E-mail address: ari.ivaska@abo.fi (A. Ivaska). the gases have been absorbed. H2 S is determined

0003-2670/01/$ – see front matter © 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
PII: S 0 0 0 3 - 2 6 7 0 ( 0 1 ) 0 1 3 6 4 - 2
190 M. Kass, A. Ivaska / Analytica Chimica Acta 449 (2001) 189–197

by iodometric titration and SO2 by acid–base titra- purity of the gases was ≥98.2% for H2 S and ≥99.98%
tion. Therefore, there is an obvious need to develop for SO2 .
automatic methods for monitoring of H2 S and SO2 at The composition of the reagent solution used
several stages of the coking process. in the spectrophotometric determination of SO2
Sequential injection analysis (SIA) and its predeces- was 0.033 g/l pararosaniline chloride (Sigma) in
sor flow injection analysis (FIA) are fast and reliable 0.4 M HCl containing 0.37% formaldehyde (Tamro,
techniques for automated chemical analysis [1,2]. SIA Helsinki). The nitroprusside reagent solution used
is more suitable than FIA for on-line applications due for the spectrophotometric determination of H2 S was
to the minimal amount of reagent needed for each prepared by dissolving 2.5 g/l nitroprusside (sodium
measurement cycle. Furthermore, the SIA instrument nitrosyl-pentacyanoferrate(III) dihydrate, Aldrich) in
is totally computer-controlled and is therefore suit- a buffer solution. The buffer solution consisted of
able for different analyses just by selecting a proper 0.1 M Na2 HPO4 (Merck) and NaOH making the final
pre-programmed measurement protocol. It can also be pH 10.6.
quickly and easily modified, meaning that the same The sulphite standards used in the SO2 determina-
physical configuration of the flow manifold can be tions were prepared by dissolving Na2 SO3 (Merck)
used in several methods. The SIA system is robust and in a water solution containing ethylenediamine-
reliable enough and therefore well-suited for monitor- tetraacetic acid (Fluka) 1 g/l as a stabilising agent.
ing industrial processes in severe conditions. The sulphide standards used in the H2 S determina-
SIA technique makes it possible to automate tions were made of disodiumsulphide nonahydrate,
well-known wet chemical and spectrophotometric Na2 S·9H2 O (Sigma). These solutions were stabilised
methods. The Schiff reaction presented already in with l(+)ascorbic acid (Merck).
1866 is perhaps the most commonly used method In the experiments where the gas flow contained
in determination of SO2 [3,4] and it has also been only SO2 , distilled and deionised water served as the
used in FIA applications [5–7]. Similarly, nitroprus- scrubbing solution. When only H2 S or both gases were
side was used for determination of sulphide [8–10] present, the scrubbing solution consisted of 1.0 g/l

already long before Hansen and Ruẑička introduced ascorbic acid dissolved in 25 mM NaOH.
the FIA technique in 1974. The methylene blue (MB)
method is perhaps more frequently used for deter- 2.2. Apparatus
mination of H2 S and it is reported even to be more
sensitive than the nitroprusside method by a factor of A commercial SIA flow system SIAmateTM anal-
∼30 [9]. yser from Arctic Instruments Oy Ab (Turku, Finland)
In this work we will develop methods for deter- was used in the experiments [11]. The software,
mination of H2 S and SO2 in coke production gas by AnalySIA, was used to control all the experimental
purging the gas through a scrubbing solution. Sam- parameters and the data acquisition. The SIAmateTM
ples of that solution are then analysed by SIA methods instrument has a built-in zoomable LED-specII
developed in this work. LED based photometer with a 0.76 mm light path.
Before running the experiments the detector was
tuned against a standard solution with a concentra-
2. Experimental tion slightly higher than the solutions to be deter-
mined. The absorbance was measured with a 558 nm
2.1. Chemicals LED.
A schematic diagram of the sequential injection
All chemicals used in the experiments were of flow system used is shown in Fig. 1. The size of the sy-
p.a. grade. Distilled and deionised water without ringe of the piston pump was 2.5 ml. All tubings used
degassing has been used when preparing and diluting in the system were of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE)
the reagents. It has also been used as the carrier solu- with an inner diameter of 0.76 mm. The length of the
tion in the SIA system throughout the experiments. holding coil was 2.0 m and the length of the reaction
Both gases used have been obtained from AGA. The coil was 1.0 m.
M. Kass, A. Ivaska / Analytica Chimica Acta 449 (2001) 189–197 191

Fig. 1. A schematic diagram of the SIA set-up.

A calibration system was designed in order to 2.3. Procedure


achieve a flow of gas where the concentration of
H2 S and SO2 could be varied. Two mass flow The gas scrubbing was carried out according to the
controllers were used in order to achieve an accu- following procedure. First the airflow was set on, then
rate and repeatable flow of the desired gases. The the scrubbing solution (20 ml) was added to the scrub-
mass flow controllers, model 5850S, were obtained ber, and the flow indicators were adjusted in order
from Brooks Instrument B.V., Veenendahl, Holland. to get the desired flow through the scrubbing solu-
One of them was calibrated for SO2 and the other tion. The setpoint values for the H2 S- and SO2 -flows
one for H2 S. Communication between the mass flow were then given to the mass flow controllers. The time
controllers and the computer was established with of scrubbing was usually kept at 1 min. During this
the Brooks smart control® software. The mass flow time a counter was measuring the total amount of
controllers allowed easy adjustment of the gas flows concentrated gas that passed through the mass flow
and other operational parameters. With the system controllers. When the desired amount of the gas had
designed the flow of the concentrated gas could be
adjusted in the range 2–100 ml/min. The flow of air
could be controlled in the range 800–7300 ml/min by
changing the pressure of the air.
Two flow indicators (Sho-Rate 1355 Series) with
different capacities were also obtained from Brooks
Instrument B.V. These were used to measure the flow
with an accuracy of 5%. A schematic diagram of the
system configuration is shown in Fig. 2. Tubings of
stainless steel with an inner diameter of 2 mm were
used to take the concentrated gases to the scrubber.
All the other tubings were of polyurethane. Air was
used to dilute the gases to the desired concentrations.
Spectrophotometric measurements with wavelength
scanning were done with a Hitachi UV–VIS spec- Fig. 2. System for dilution and scrubbing of H2 S and SO2 gas.
trophotometer, Model U-2001. The measurements MH2 S and MSO2 = mass flow controllers for H2 S and SO2 , R1
were performed using cuvettes with 10 mm light path. and R2 = gas-flow indicators, SC = scrubber.
192 M. Kass, A. Ivaska / Analytica Chimica Acta 449 (2001) 189–197

passed, the flow of the concentrated gases was stopped. fold [12]. The physical dispersion and zone overlap
Finally the scrubbing solution was removed manually obtained with these parameters was studied in the fol-
from the scrubber to be analysed with SIA. lowing way. A dye solution (bromothymol blue) was
A measurement cycle with the sequential injection aspirated first in the colourless carrier stream as the
technique included the following steps: (1) washing reagent and in the next measurement as the sample
of the sample line with a fresh sample solution; (2) according to the SIA protocol. The absorbance was
aspiration of the sample to the holding coil; (3) as- measured at 635 nm. The tracer curves obtained are
piration of the reagent to the holding coil; (4) flow plotted on the same time axis in Fig. 3. As can be
reversion and pumping the aspirated zones through the seen in the figure the zones overlap each other to such
reaction coil to the detector and further to the waste. an extent that necessary conditions for a reaction is
The photometric measurement was done at 558 nm. provided. Only the physical dispersion is illustrated in
When the pararosaniline reagent was used prob- this way. In real measurements, however, the chemi-
lems due to carryover effects was found. The reaction cal reaction will also make a further contribution to
product showed some affinity to the inner walls of the over-all dispersion.
the tubing. This resulted in a rise of the background
signal of the detector after each measurement cycle. 3.2. Determination of H2 S
Introduction of a washing step improved the stability
of the background signal. In this step 500 ␮l of 5 M The nitroprusside reagent was first tested on stan-
NaOH was aspirated to the holding coil and then dard solutions made of Na2 S·9H2 O. The AnalySIA
flushed through the reaction coil and the detector programme was programmed in such a way that
before aspirating a new sample. only one standard solution was needed to make a
In all experiments the measurement cycle was calibration curve [11]. The procedure was such that
repeated three times for each concentration. The the standard solution was diluted on-line to differ-
collected data was median filtered making the distur- ent calibration concentrations. First a measurement
bances caused by possible air bubbles disappear in was performed with the whole volume (50 ␮l) of the
the signal when used for analytical evaluation. Cali- standard solution. Then smaller and smaller volumes
bration curves can be made either by measuring the were aspirated following aspiration of the ascorbic
peak height or as in our case by measuring the peak acid solution (1.0 g/l) so that the volumes together
area. The calibration points are plotted automatically were always constant (50 ␮l/s). The last calibration
and linear or polynomial regression analysis is ap- point was observed with a solution consisting only
plied. The standard deviation (n = 5) in obtaining the to one-tenth (i.e. 5 ␮l) of the standard solution. This
calibration points was 1–2%. No signal was observed procedure resulted in a linear calibration curve with
when pure water was introduced as blank. R 2 = 0.9941. The results were matched against man-
ually prepared standards (1.5–15 mM Na2 S), with
good agreement. The standard deviation (n = 5) of
3. Results and discussion the SIA method of these samples was ca. 1%.
It was found that addition of ascorbic acid to the
3.1. Zone dispersion scrubbing solution increased the efficiency of the H2 S
absorption. However, if the ascorbic acid concentra-
In the spectrophotometric methods used in this tion was too high, formation of the coloured product
work, the product of the reaction between the sample in the reaction between H2 S and nitroprusside in
and the reagent is detected. Reagent-based chemistries the subsequent SIA determinations was depressed.
of this type require at least medium dispersion so that Optimisation of the ascorbic acid concentration in the
the reagent and sample zones will mix properly. Most scrubbing solution was done by preparing solutions
of the experiments were performed using 175 ␮l of with different ascorbic acid concentrations and by
reagent and 50 ␮l of sample and the flow rate was kept purging a gas flow containing 10 g H2 S/m3 through
at 50 ␮l/s. These parameters have been successfully the solutions. A small sample from every scrubbing
used in a previous study with a similar flow mani- solution was then analysed in the SIA system with
M. Kass, A. Ivaska / Analytica Chimica Acta 449 (2001) 189–197 193

Fig. 3. Tracer curves obtained for the reagent (175 ␮l), and the sample (50 ␮l), when the flow rate was 50 ␮l/s.

nitroprusside as the reagent. An ascorbic acid con- ca. 20 s, with the flow rate of 50 ml/min, from the time
centration of 1.0 g/l was found to be suitable for the when the sample comes in contact with the reagent
scrubbing solutions in the future experiments. in the holding coil and until the reaction product
reaches the flow cell. Therefore, introduction of a
[Fe(CN)5 NO]2− + S2− → [Fe(CN)5 NOS]4− (3)
stopped-flow period would not improve the response
The reaction between nitroprusside and sulphide considerably. Because the timing of all the operations
proceeds according to reaction (3) and the product in a SIA system is done with a high accuracy by the
formed has been reported to be unstable [9]. To study software, the time elapsed between the points when
the stability of the coloured product formed in reaction the sample and the reagent come together and when
(3) the absorbance spectrum was taken during 60 s the absorbance measurement is done, is constant be-
after mixing a Na2 S-standard (1 mM) and nitroprus- tween different determinations and can be repeated
side (2.8 mM) in a cuvette with 10 mm light path. An with high reproducibility. This allows reproducible
absorbance spectrum was recorded for every 15 s and measurements even when the measurement is not
the obtained absorbance spectra are shown in Fig. 4. done at the maximum value of the absorbance.
The spectrum recorded immediately after mixing Mixtures of air and H2 S in different concentrations
is obviously from an initial reaction product which in the range 5–15 g/m3 were purged for 1 min through
is then converted to the final product according to the scrubbing solutions. A new solution was used for
reaction (3). every determination. A sample from each scrubbing
As can be seen in Fig. 4 a compound with an solution was then analysed in the SIA system (Fig. 5).
absorbance maximum around 540 nm is formed In this concentration range a linear response was
first. Then the absorbance maximum moves gradu- obtained (y = 7.16×105 x +1.43×106 , R 2 = 0.996),
ally towards higher wavelengths and finally settles when the area under the absorbance curves was plo-
at 570 nm, whereafter the peak height decreases tted versus the H2 S-concentration.
gradually. In the SIA system used in this work the Since the gas flows are known, it is possible to
absorbance is measured with a 558 nm LED. The calculate the sulphide concentration that the scrubbing
absorbance at this wavelength has its maximum value solution would have if H2 S would be absorbed with
at ca. 30 s. In the manifold used in this work it takes 100% efficiency. By comparing the response of these
194 M. Kass, A. Ivaska / Analytica Chimica Acta 449 (2001) 189–197

Fig. 4. Absorbance spectra of the product formed from the reaction between hydrogen sulphide and nitroprusside at different time intervals
(0–60 s). Pure nitroprusside reagent solution did not absorb light in this wavelength range.

calculated concentrations with the experimentally ob- This SIA method for determination of H2 S was
tained values, it was found that the efficiency of the compared with a manual iodometric titration method.
H2 S absorption was over 90%. The reproducibility of Five different scrubbing solutions containing absorbed
the method was tested with the same gas concentration H2 S were analysed with both methods. The individual
and flow by repeating the experiment ten times. Every differences of the methods were compared with
scrubbing solution was also analysed three times. The Student’s t-test (t = 1.314). The methods are not
standard deviation obtained was 2.5%. systematically different at the 90% confidence level.

Fig. 5. Detector response for determination of 5–15 g H2 S/m3 at 558 nm with nitroprusside as reagent.
M. Kass, A. Ivaska / Analytica Chimica Acta 449 (2001) 189–197 195

The MB method has been used in application of Mixtures of air and SO2 in different concentrations
the FIA technique in determination of H2 S [13]. in the range 1.6–8.0 g/m3 was purged through 12 ml
Kubáň et al. have compared the MB method with of water in the scrubber. Small samples from each
the nitroprusside method [9]. They found the later scrubbing solution were analysed in the SIA system
method more suitable in practical assay work. In our with pararosaniline as the reagent. The absorbance
SIA set-up the assay work using the MB method was was measured at 558 nm and the response from each
found to be more complicated and therefore the nitro- sample is shown in Fig. 6. The area under the ab-
prusside method was considered more suitable in our sorbance curves was plotted versus the logarithm
applications although the reagent showed some insta- of the SO2 -concentration. A linear relationship was
bility. The signal decreased by 10% during 10 days. hereby obtained (y = 2.57 × 107 x–2.39 × 106 , R 2 =
Therefore, the reagent has to be replaced weekly in 0.998). The relative standard deviation of the area
continuous use. under the absorbance peaks of four similar samples
was 1.3%. Three repetitive determinations were made
3.3. Determination of SO2 on each sample.
A somewhat improved linearity (R 2 = 0.999) was
The reaction between pararosaniline, formaldehyde obtained when a chloroacetic acid was added to the
and sulphite has been described by Dasgupta et al. [4]. scrubbing solution. The reaction between SO2 and
In our work the pararosaniline reagent was first tested pararosaniline is pH-dependent, but chloroacetic acid
on standard solutions made of Na2 SO3 . Four standard in the scrubbing solution fixed the pH resulting in a
solutions with Na2 SO3 -concentrations in the range better reproducibility. The collection efficiency of the
0.16–1.1 mM was prepared and assayed in the SIA sys- scrubbing unit was 70% when the gas contained 5.6 g
tem. The reaction between pararosaniline and sulphite SO2 /m3 and the calculations were done as described
is rather slow, so introduction of a 15 s stopped-flow in Section 3.2.
period, when the sample and reagent were in the hold- In order to compare this SIA method with a man-
ing coil, increased the detector response considerably. ual acid–base titration method SO2 was determined
When the area under the obtained absorbance curves in five different scrubbing solutions by both methods.
was plotted versus the logarithm of the standard con- Student’s t-test was performed on the results (t =
centrations, a linear calibration curve was obtained 2.290). The two methods are not significantly differ-
(y = 1.69 × 107 x + 3.89 × 107 , R 2 = 0.990). ent at the 95% confidence level.

Fig. 6. Detector response for determination of 1.6–8.0 g SO2 /m3 at 558 nm with pararosaniline as reagent.
196 M. Kass, A. Ivaska / Analytica Chimica Acta 449 (2001) 189–197

When low concentrations of SO2 are determined such a way that it can be connected on-line to an
the sensitivity of the Schiff reaction should be in- industrial process. A totally computer-controlled SIA
creased. This can be done by having separated reagent system is used, which makes it possible to use directly
components and a different reagent addition sequence. the obtained signals for process control. This would
Dasgupta et al. have discussed the enhancement of considerably improve the yield of elementary sulphur
the sensitivity of the reaction in detail [4]. from effluent gas compared with the currently used
process where the analytical determinations are done
3.4. Simultaneous determination of H2 S and SO2 by manual off-line methods.
The approach described in this paper offers advan-
The reactions between pararosaniline and SO2 and tages that are important when an analytical method is
between nitroprusside and H2 S are rather specific. A used on-line in industrial processes. Only very small
sample containing only SO2 does not give any re- amount of reagent and sample are needed for the mea-
sponse with nitroprusside and H2 S does not react with surements. Although the measurements would be done
pararosaniline. Consequently the reactions have no throughout a day, only moderate amounts of waste is
significant interference from the other gas. generated. In addition to this, experience proves that
A mixture of H2 S and SO2 was made and diluted the instrument used in this study offers satisfactory
with air to the following concentrations: 10 g H2 S/m3 long-term stability.
and 5.6 g SO2 /m3 . This gas mixture was purged The system has also the capability to be connected
through the scrubber for 3 min. The scrubbing solution in the next development state on-line to the process
consisted of 1.8 g ascorbic acid/l dissolved in 25 mM to do automatic analysis of process gases. In such
NaOH. Two more experiments were done by purging an application the solution to the scrubber would be
each of the gases at the mentioned concentrations at introduced through the multi-position valve. Samples
time through scrubbing solutions. Samples from all would then be taken automatically and at the end of
three scrubbing solutions were analysed in the SIA each cycle the scrubber solution would be changed.
system for SO2 and H2 S. When pararosaniline was Similar SIA instrument as used in this work has been
used both samples containing SO2 gave the same re- in on-line use in a chemical production plant already
sponse, independent of whether H2 S was present in for some years and has shown good stability and
the purging gas or not. The sample containing only robustness in that environment.
H2 S did not show any response at all with pararosani-
line. Therefore, we can make the conclusion that H2 S
does not interfere the determination of SO2 . However, Acknowledgements
SO2 showed some interference in the determination
of H2 S. The area of the absorbance peak for the sam- The financial support from the National Techno-
ple containing both gases was approximately 70% of logy Agency (TEKES), Outokumpu Research, OMG
the response of the sample containing only H2 S of the Kokkola Chemicals, Rautaruukki Steel and Jernkon-
same concentration. The sample with only SO2 did toret is gratefully acknowledged. This work has also
not show any response with nitroprusside. It seems been supported by the Academy of Finland as part
that the presence of SO2 will, to some extent, block of the Åbo Akademi University, Process Chemistry
or suppress absorption of H2 S from the gas phase to Group, the National Centre of Excellence programme
the scrubbing solution. 2000–2005, project 64332.

4. Conclusions
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