Overview of the Sulfur Recovery Industry

This is the first video in a mini-series that provides an overview of the sulfur recovery process, covering: elemental sulfur, sulfur recovery industry, Claus plant fundamentals, SRU process units/equipment, and SRU intrumentation.

What is sulfur?
Sulfur is found elementally in minerals, ores, coal, mineral springs, and volcanic regions. It is also found and recovered from natural gas, crude oil, and large underground deposits (mining).
Sulfur is present in natural gas primarily as H2S, although there are many other sulfur compounds that may be present, such as mercaptans, sulfides, and disulfides.
Liquid Sulfur exists as S8 and exhibits VERY unusual viscosity behavior with increasing temperature:
After sulfur melts at 120C, it continues to drop in viscosity until about 150C, where it quickly changes into a viscous gum-like substance. Then, just before it gets to 205C, sulfur will start to slowly decrease in viscosity and continue at that negative trend.

• Commercialized sulfur production began in 1894 via the Frasch mining and extraction process.
• Today the sulfur industry is an integral part of the world economy, and is a reliable indicator for a country’s industrial activity.
• Sulfur is a vital resource used to manufacture a myriad of essential products.
• Sulfuric Acid is used in mining, fertilizers & potash, as well as pulp & paper.
• The fertilizer industry uses more than half of the sulfur production, converting most of it into sulfuric acid into process agents such as super phosphates, ammonium phosphate and ammonium sulfate.
• Newer sulfur products include sulfur extended asphalt, sulfur concrete, and sulfur as a direct soil additive

• This table is for Alberta recovery guidelines, where the regulatory body is the Alberta Energy Regulator, or AER.
• The U.S. has the Environmental Protection Agency, or EPA, where each state has its own specific regulations in place for the Sulfur Recovery industry
• Recovery licenses will dictate a minimum overall recovery efficiency, but they also regulate values for maximum SO2 emissions from the stack. Stack guidelines can be for SO2 tonnage, or concentration.
• These licenses are based on the maximum SRU plant inlet, in terms of sulfur tonnage

• All Refinery process gas streams that contain H2S are routed to an Amine unit for removal.
• Amine units capture H2S (absorber/contactor) and then release it (regenerator/stripper) in the form of an ‘acid gas’ stream containing H2S, CO2 and HC contaminants.

• All Refinery ‘sour water’ is routed to a Sour Water Stripper (SWS) to remove of H2S and NH3.
• Sour Water Strippers include a regenerator/stripper that removes the H2S and NH3 from solution in the form of an ‘acid gas’ stream containing, approximately , equal parts H2S, NH3, and H2O (and trace contaminants).

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Видео Overview of the Sulfur Recovery Industry канала Sulfur Recovery Engineering Inc