Category: Outlook & Reviews

The global potash market has endured a tumultuous 18 months, says Andy Hemphill, senior editor for potash and sulphuric acid at ICIS Fertilizers. Export sanctions, high offer prices and buyer unrest persist as we enter 2023.

Meena Chauhan, Head of Sulphur and Sulphuric Acid Research, Argus Media, assesses price trends and the market outlook for sulphur.

Processed phosphates pricing will be a major influence in the coming months. A gap remains between historical levels of sulphur and DAP pricing that points to the potential for sulphur prices to recover to higher levels during 2023.

It has long been known that sulphur dioxide aerosols can reflect sunlight back into space. On a large scale, this has tended to come from volcanic eruptions. The explosion of the island of Krakatoa in 1815 led to the following year, 1816, becoming known in Europe as ‘the year without a summer’. More recently, it is estimated that the eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines in 1991, the second largest eruption of the 20th century, sent around 18 million tonnes of SO2 into the stratosphere. Temperatures in the troposphere – the atmospheric layer closest to the earth – dropped by about 0.5°C as a result for about two years afterwards.

Last year saw global trade in all commodities have to take into account the potential loss of supply from Russia, a key exporter of many commodities. Sulphur was no exception, with prices swinging wildly across the year.

Last year attention was drawn to the potential for large scale decarbonisation to leave the world short of the key resources of sulphur, and hence sulphuric acid. But is there a global sulphur shortage on the distant horizon?

The world has seen a number of hydrogen explosions in double absorption plants mostly in the intermediate absorption tower (IAT). To review this increase and to determine the causes, an International Hydrogen Safety Workgroup was formed including major acid plant contractors, major acid producers, and consultants in the sulphuric acid arena. Workgroup member Rick Davis of Davis & Associates Consulting explores some of the findings.

Sulphur run-down lines are typically sized by referencing past projects and ‘rules of thumb’. Very little analysis is performed to identify the impacts of slope, fittings, valves, etc. It is critical to maintain an open vapour path from the condenser to the sealing device. CSI has observed problems in the field which appear to be caused by undersized run-down lines. CSI developed a method of predicting the liquid level in a run-down line that considers the most common elements. This was accomplished by building a full-scale model of a run-down line that evaluated pipe NPS, pipe slope, rod-out-cross elbows, rod-out cross elevation drops, and liquid viscosity. This article* presents the testing and development of the predictive method as well as the predictive method itself.

CRU Events will host the 2023 Nitrogen + Syngas conference and exhibition at the Hyatt Regency Barcelona Tower in Barcelona, 6-8 March.

Cansu Doganay of Lux Research takes a look at the current technology landscape for methane pyrolysis for producing low-carbon hydrogen from natural gas.