Patent ID: 7767000

Claim:
A method of removing hydrogen chloride and hydrogen sulfide from a process gas stream comprised of the hydrogen chloride and the hydrogen sulfide using a regenerable manganese oxide sorbent comprising: contacting the process gas stream with a sorbent comprised of a first manganese oxide at an absorption temperature, where the first manganese oxide is comprised of MnO, MnO 2 , or mixtures thereof, such that some portion of the hydrogen chloride in the process gas stream reacts with some portion of the first manganese oxide to produce manganese chloride, and such that some portion of the hydrogen sulfide in the process gas stream reacts with a second some portion of the first manganese oxide to produce manganese sulfide, thereby removing the some portion of the hydrogen chloride and the some portion of the hydrogen sulfide from the process gas stream and producing a hydrogen chloride and hydrogen sulfide depleted gas stream, and thereby producing a loaded sorbent comprised of manganese chloride and manganese sulfide; exhausting the hydrogen chloride and hydrogen sulfide depleted gas stream; isolating the loaded sorbent from the process gas stream and the hydrogen chloride and hydrogen sulfide depleted gas stream and exposing the loaded sorbent to a regeneration atmosphere comprised of oxygen, and heating the loaded sorbent to a regeneration temperature such that some portion of the manganese chloride comprising the loaded sorbent reacts with some portion of the oxygen comprising the regeneration atmosphere to produce a second manganese oxide and a gaseous chlorine, where the second manganese oxide is comprised of MnO, MnO 2 , or mixtures thereof, and such that some portion of the manganese sulfide comprising the loaded sorbent reacts with a second some portion of the oxygen comprising the regeneration atmosphere to produce a third manganese oxide and a gaseous sulfur dioxide, where the third manganese oxide is comprised of MnO, MnO 2 or mixtures thereof and where the regeneration temperature is a temperature such that the second manganese oxide and the gaseous chlorine are produced by a reaction having negative Gibbs free energy, thereby regenerating the loaded sorbent and producing a regenerated sorbent, where the regenerated sorbent is comprised of the second manganese oxide and the third manganese oxide; isolating the regenerated sorbent from the regeneration atmosphere and the gaseous chlorine and the gaseous sulfur dioxide and cooling the regenerated sorbent to the absorption temperature; and repeating the contacting the process gas stream step using the regenerated sorbent comprised of the second manganese oxide and the third manganese oxide as the sorbent comprised of the first manganese oxide, thereby removing hydrogen chloride and hydrogen sulfide from the process gas stream comprised of hydrogen chloride and hydrogen sulfide using a regenerable manganese oxide sorbent.