Electrochemical coupling conversion of sulfur-containing gaseous waste to treasure: A key review

Sulfur-containing gaseous contaminant treatment is a key issue in the healthy and sustainable development of industry, especially SO2 and H2S occur with natural gas extraction and fossil fuel burning. Traditionally, the commercial method for H2S or SO2 requires numerous desiccants and enormous energy consumption. Encouragingly, electrochemical coupling system, which provide an efficient, sustainable, and economic pathway for sulfur-containing gaseous contaminants removal, can convert H2S and SO2 to recyclable substance in a moderate environment and simultaneously transfer the energy contained in them to other more valuable product. The current review discusses the mechanism and principle of the electrochemical coupling system as well as the recent studies on the electrochemical removal of H2S and SO2, with the goal of providing a suitable idea to solve the problems of energy waste and resource recovery in pollutants treatment.