Process for desulfurizing gases

Claim 1

A continuous process for desulfurizing the coke oven gas and sinter plant gas resulting from operation of an integrated steel mill and forming elemental sulfur which comprises, a. conveying a stream of sinter plant gas from its source to a heat exchanger to extract heat from said gas; b. contacting the cooled stream of sinter plant gas with a citric acid-containing solution to reduce the SO 2 content of said stream and increase the SO 2 content of said solution; c. returning the resulting stream of gas to the said heat exchanger to return heat thereto; d. discharging the resulting gas of increased temperature into a stack; e. contacting a stream of coke oven gas free of by-product constituents with the solution resulting from step b) to reduce the H 2 S content of said coke oven gas stream and increase the H 2 S content of said solution; f. the relative rates of flow of the two said gas streams being such that the amount of H 2 S and SO 2 contained in the solution resulting from step e) is substantially in the ratio of two moles of H 2 S to one mole of SO 2 , whereby elemental sulfur precipitates out of the solution; g. removing precipitated sulfur from the last said solution, and h. passing at least a portion of the solution resulting from step f) to step a).