Modeling of Catalyst Effect on the Reduction Rate Enhancement of Barium Sulfate by Methane and Developing Two Environmentally Friendly Processes

This article describes kinetic modeling of the reduction of barium sulfate by methane based on experimental data obtained by thermogravimetric technique. The conversion-time data have been interpreted by using the grain model for gas-solid reactions and the effect of catalyst on the kinetic parameters has been elucidated. It was found that zinc oxide acted as a fairly strong catalyst for the reaction, especially at higher temperatures. For example, at about 950°C the reaction rate constant was increased more than 8 times by using only 2 percent of zinc oxide. Orthogonal collocation method was used for solving coupled partial differential equations of gas-solid reaction. There is a good agreement between the experimental data and results obtained from simulation. This research offers a clean method for barium carbonate production with methane as a reducing agent, decreasing CO2 emission significantly. Also, a new process for converting sulfur dioxide to elemental sulfur by a cyclic process involving barium sulfide and barium sulfate has been proposed.