Optimal Design of Acid Gas-to-Syngas (AG2S) Technology: Process Optimization and Surrogate Modeling

The management of acid gases (i.e., H2S and CO2) is a fundamental requirement in process plants, such as refineries. Current strategies typically do not exploit the hydrogen content in hydrogen sulfide, which is usually burned. The acid gas-to-syngas (AG2S) technology represents an innovative approach for converting a mixture of hydrogen sulfide (H2S) and carbon dioxide (CO2) into syngas (H2 and CO), with potential applications in fuels and chemical synthesis. This work investigates the optimal process design of AG2S in terms of the H2S/CO2 and H2S/O2 feed molar ratios to maximize syngas production. The study combines detailed kinetic and thermodynamic modeling to obtain a comprehensive process simulation, which serves as the basis for generating accurate surrogate models trained on flowsheet simulation data via a design of experiments (DoE) approach. These models allow for a reliable prediction of H2S conversion, syngas flow rate, H2/CO ratio, and selectivity. The results highlight limitations imposed by relatively low H2/CO ratios for downstream applications and illustrate the trade-off between syngas quality and quantity.