Theoretical analysis for the heterogeneous decomposition of hydrogen sulfide to hydrogen on an iron-metallic plate in a laminar stagnation-point flow

Abstract

In this work, we have theoretically analyzed the conversion process of hydrogen sulfide, H2S, to atomic hydrogen, H-0, in a planar stagnation-point flow over an iron-metallic surface. We assume that a binary mixture of hydrogen sulfide and methane composes the laminar stagnation flow. In order to characterize this complex phenomenon with very specific chemical activities on the surface of the metallic plate, we propose a heterogeneous reaction scheme based on four reactions: two electrochemical, one adsorption and an additional exothermic reaction needed to complete the direct conversion of hydrogen sulfide to hydrogen on the surface of the iron. The nondimensional governing equations, which include the mass species and momentum conservation of the mixture and the molecular diffusion of hydrogen into the iron plate, are numerically solved by conventional finite-difference methods. The numerical results show the critical conditions of the H2S decomposition as functions of the involved nondimensional parameters of the present model. In particular, we show parametrically the influence that has the initial concentration of H2S on the surface coverage of the chemical products HS- H+ and H-0 derived from the chemical and electrochemical reactions. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.