Hydrogen sulfide filtration combustion: comparison of theory and experiment

Filtration combustion waves in an inert porous media were analyzed comparatively for lean and rich H2S–air mixtures. Temperature, velocity, and chemical products of the combustion wave were studied experimentally in the range of equivalence ratios from 0.1 to 5.5. Downstream (superadiabatic) wave propagation was observed for ultra-lean (ϕ⩽0.45) and ultra-rich (ϕ⩾1.7) mixtures. Upstream (underadiabatic) propagation corresponds to the range of equivalence ratios from 0.45 to 1.7. It was found that, with equal heat content, rich mixtures have higher combustion temperatures than corresponding lean mixtures. The products of partial H2S oxidation, H2, and S2 are dominant for ultra-rich superadiabatic combustion, where up to 60% of H2S was converted to S2 and H2. For lean mixtures, the dominant products were H2O, SO2, and H2SO4.