The sulfur dioxide (SO2) contained in combustion exhaust gases from medium-scale facilities or ocean ships must be removed because of its role as an air pollutant. In this study, dry DeSO(x) filter of manganese oxide was used to capture SO2 with a simple sulfate reaction. The thermogravimetry (TG), experiments shows that the MnO2 sample having a specific surface area of 250 m(2)/g absorbed SO2 at about 0.45 g-(SO2)/g-(MnO2) and 0.18 g(SO2)/g(MnO2) at 450 degrees C and 250 degrees C, respectively. Desulfurization breakthrough experiment in a packed bed was employed to evaluate the possibility of deep desulfurization. As a result, the inlet SO2 is almost absorbed by the high specific surface area (HSSA) MnO2 bed, over 99.5% absorbed at space velocity of 0.5 x 10(4) h(-1). Higher space velocity condition is targeting a more compact filter. Under the condition of 5.0 x 10(4) h(-1), SO2 over 80% against inlet SO2 can be absorbed at early time. Conclusively, this material has a large enough SO2 absorption rate to capture significant amounts of SO2 gas. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.