Continuous process to treat a hydrogen sulphide comprising gas

Abstract

The invention is directed to a continuous process to treat a hydrogen sulphide comprising gas comprising the following steps: (a) contacting the hydrogen sulphide comprising gas with an aqueous alkaline solution further comprising sulphide oxidising bacteria thereby obtaining a loaded aqueous solution comprising sulphide compounds and sulphide oxidising bacteria. (b) contacting the loaded aqueous solution with an oxygen comprising gas to regenerate the sulphide oxidising bacteria to obtain a liquid effluent comprising regenerated sulphide oxidising bacteria which is partly used as the aqueous alkaline solution in step (a). (c) separating elemental sulphur as prepared by the sulphide oxidising bacteria in steps (a) and (b) from the loaded aqueous solution of step (a) and/or from the liquid effluent of step (b) and wherein the consumption of oxygen in step (b) is measured and wherein the supply of oxygen in step (b) is controlled by the measured consumption of oxygen.