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Recovery of Hydrogen and Other Useful Products from Industrial Waste Gases Investigators Prof. K. Thanasekaran, Prof. A. Navaneetha Gopalakrishnan, Prof. R. Nagendra Dr. K. Palanivelu, Dr. S. Kanmani, Centre for Environmental Studies Prof. A. Ramachandran, Centre for Climate Change & Adaptation Research Prof. M. Velan, Department of Chemical Engineering Dr. V. Murugesan, Department of Chemistry Objective Every year millions of tons of Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) is produced from various industries like petroleum refinery, pesticide industry, pulp and paper industry, tanning industry, thermal power plants, anaerobic sewage treatment plants in distilleries and others. H2S is a notorious air pollutant causing serious human health problems and environmental impacts. Carbon dioxide (CO2) a major contributor to global warming is produced from burning of fusel fuels in the industries and power plants. It is estimated that the CO2 contributes to 60% of total green house effects and also it causes other environmental impacts like acidification and depletion of natural resources etc. There is an urgent need to convert these industrial waste gases into useful products and energy. In this context, it is proposed to convert H2S gas into Hydrogen (a clean energy fuel) and to convert CO2 to recover useful products from the industrial gases. Strategy and Methodology The proposed five-year research work will focus on developing novel photocatalysts and solar phtocatalytic reactors for decomposition of industrial waste gases containing H2S into H2. Based on the optimization of the design parameter from the bench scale studies, the technique will be promoted as technology for industrial application. Also, the CO2 from the industrial waste gases will be captured by carbon capture and storage methods using suitable solutions for recovering valuable products using suitable solutions and recover valuable products as reliable and environmental friendly option. It involves the reaction of CO2 with RO reject containing Sodium Chloride (Desalination of Textile effluent treatment) with Ammonia and organic amines with a view to recover and reusable products like sodium carbonate, carbomate and amino acids. Expected major outcome In this research study, appropriate pollution control technologies will be developed for converting industrial waste gases into useful products and energy and also these technologies will be demonstrated for industrial application. |