Professor William H. Green
PI at MIT
Professor Khalid Al-Ali
PI at Masdar Institute
Refineries and sour gas sweetening processes produce huge amounts of Hydrogen Sulfide (H2S), about 70 million metric tons/year. The challenge of removing sulfur from fuel has been a major focus of refineries for several decades.
The conventional approach to dispose of the noxious H2S is the “Claus Process” which is primarily performed for safety/environmental reasons, releasing a great deal of energy in the form of low grade steam, which has relatively low economic value. This project focuses on developing an alternative practical and efficient solar process, which also accomplishes the goal of converting the noxious H2S into elemental Sulfur, but which preserves the hydrogen atoms as hydrogen gas, and which stores solar energy for later use.
A solar process that can convert this large-volume, highly toxic material into a useful fuel would both protect human health and the environment, and make a substantial contribution to the world's supply of clean energy.
The UAE is geographically located in the Sun Belt with an annual solar energy input of more than 2000 kWh/m2. This is a natural and renewable resource, more than sufficient to convert all the H2S produced in UAE into H2, and so store a large amount of solar energy in a valuable form while simultaneously removing a hazardous material.
