Patent ID: 7311891

Claim:
A method of recovering sulfur from a tail gas stream containing hydrogen sulfide and obtained from a sulfur recovery unit comprising the steps of: (a) adding air or oxygen to said tail gas stream containing hydrogen sulfide; (b) oxidizing said hydrogen sulfide to convert the hydrogen sulfide in said tail gas stream to a sulfur oxide, the air or oxygen being added in an amount to support conversion of all the hydrogen sulfide in said tail gas stream to sulfur oxide, and thereby form a sulfur oxide enriched gas stream; (c) contacting said sulfur oxide enriched gas stream with a solid sulfation resistant adsorbent bed at a temperature of 90-150° C. for adsorbing thereon the sulfur oxides and thereby form a sulfur oxide depleted stream; (d) contacting said adsorbent bed with a stream of an inert gas, reducing gas or mixture thereof to regenerate said adsorbent bed and form elemental sulfur and/or sulfur dioxide; and (e) recovering said elemental sulfur and/or sulfur dioxide.