Patent ID: 7776308

Claim:
A method for continuously recovering sulphur from a gas stream, said method comprising: (a) introducing a gas stream containing 0.1 to 3.0 vol-%, H 2 S and further gaseous sulphur compounds including SO 2 , COS, CS 2 and elemental sulphur into a reaction tank, said reaction tank comprising a first fixed-bed zone containing hydrogenation catalyst and a second fixed-bed zone containing selective oxidation catalyst, wherein a space exists between the first and second fixed bed zones; (b) passing the gas stream over the first fixed-bed zone to reduce the gaseous sulphur compounds and the elemental sulphur to H 2 S over the hydrogenation catalyst, wherein the gas stream passed over the first fixed bed zone is heated to a temperature of between 160 to 280° C.; (c) passing the gas stream leaving the first fixed-bed zone to the second fixed-bed zone in which H 2 S is converted to sulphur over the selective oxidation catalyst and wherein in the space between the first and second fixed-bed zones a gaseous cooling medium containing atmospheric oxygen is introduced into the gas stream.