Original Article

Kinetic study of CO generation reaction in microwave-assisted carbon thermal desulfurization process

¹ College of Metallurgy and Energy, North China University of Science and Technology, Tangshan 063000, Hebei, PR China
² Laboratory of Modern Metallurgy Technology, North China University of Science and Technology, Tangshan 063000, Hebei, PR China

^* e-mail: yan.sky@126.com

Received: 15 February 2025
Accepted: 8 October 2025

Abstract

Microwave irradiation activated carbon desulfurization technology has broad prospects for its high efficiency and environmental protection advantages, but the generation of CO by-products affects the industrial application of this technology. In this paper, the formation characteristics of CO in microwave carbon thermal desulfurization reaction were analyzed by thermodynamic calculation. Combined with Langmuir-Hinshelwood (L-H) theory, the hyperbolic intrinsic kinetic rate equation was established by using three mechanism models of SO₂ adsorption, surface reaction and CO desorption as control steps. Finally, the parameters of the model were estimated. The results show that the microwave irradiation activated carbon desulfurization process is consistent with the L−H model, and the rate equation with the irreversible surface reaction (SO₂*+2C → 2CO^*+S_(g)) as the control step is consistent with the actual situation. In addition, the activation energy of desulfurization reaction is 32.53 kJ · mol⁻¹, and the results show that microwave has a catalytic effect on the carbothermal desulfurization reaction, which provides an important theoretical support for the treatment of SO₂ in sintering flue gas by microwave method.