Magazine: Sulphur

The centre of gravity of the phosphate industry continues to shift, with Chinese exports less important, and fresh demand coming from India and Brazil.

Kazakhstan’s oil and condensate output increased by 7% from 1.79 million bbl/d to 1.92 million bbl/d in early June after sour gas reinjection operations resumed at the Kashagan offshore oil and gas development following a recent outage, according to the Kazkah Energy Ministry. Reinjection of sour gas into two wells resumed on 8th June, enabling operator the North Caspian Operating Company (NCOC) to boost oil and condensate production at a large artificial island in Kazakhstan’s Caspian Sea waters. Reinjection was paused on May 20th following the detection of sour gas during routine sampling and a subsequent integrity test. Kashagan normally produces about 300,000 barrels of oil per day. Kazakhstan expects Kashsgan to raise oil production this year to 18.2 million t/a from 12.7 million t/a in 2022.

The 2023 Middle East Sulphur Conference (MEScon 2023) was the biggest sulphur event in the region to date with over 650 attendees representing 23 countries from across the sour gas and sulphur value chain. More than a conference, this annual event offers conversation, collaboration and community, with leaders and experts from across the industry sharing knowledge, best practice and predictions for the future of sulphur.

In 2019 Topsoe launched its ClearView™ technology for WSA and SNOx sulphuric acid plants. ClearView™ is a revolutionary process health monitoring software solution to help sulphuric acid plant operators ensure plants run better, more stable and with less downtime. Now, three years later, ClearView™ has been successfully implemented at two WSA plants and several other chemical plants of Topsoe’s design, with many others in the pipeline. This article focuses on the results and learnings from the first implementation of ClearView™ at a new WSA plant at Anglo American Platinum’s Polokwane smelter in South Africa.

Indonesian imports have increased in 2023 so far on a year earlier. As new nickel high pressure acid leach projects ramp up, demand for sulphur is expected to increase further. Swing buyers have been importing significant volumes of sulphuric acid, affecting short term sulphur demand in the second quarter. It remains to be seen if this will continue, we expect sulphur demand to ramp up further in the second half of the year, bringing import expectations for the year to around 2 million t.

Aged sulphur products can be friable and fragile, which can lead to sulphur dust during handling. Because sulphur dust can lead to dust explosions and excessive wet sulphur contact corrosion, shipping and handling specifications for the safest products are used by producers, shippers and consumers to limit dangerous incidents. Metastable polymeric sulphur in the solid product limits friability and is rarely cited as a measured quantity within sulphur specifications, but often discussed when explaining best handling and forming practices. In this article, ASRL discusses why sulphur tends to be friable and explores several measurements cited in many specification documents, with the purpose of focusing on several modern solid forms. In addition, the measurement of total and extraneous water is explored.

Metso Outotec’s annual general meeting (AGM) in early May approved the board of directors’ proposal to change the company name to Metso Corporation. “After the successful integration of Metso and Outotec, we will focus on growing a strong unified Metso company and brand,” says President and CEO of Metso, Pekka Vauramo. “We have combined two valuable companies into one strong Metso. Our focus is clear: we continue enabling sustainable modern life and transforming the industry with a clear strategy and strong culture, supported by a name that is short yet established and well recognized among all our stakeholders. Services are an extremely important part of our business, requiring a strong name.”

Bedeschi has been awarded a contract by Tecnicas Reunidas and Wison Engineering for the engineering and supply of new sulphur-handling equipment. Tecnicas Reunidas and Wison Engineering are working in a 70-30 joint venture partnership on the North Field Expansion Project (NFXP) Sulphur Project, which forms part of the overall Qatar North Field Expansion Project. Last year were awarded a $600 million contract to process and export sulphur from the projected expansion of the liquefied natural gas (LNG) facilities in Ras Laffan Industrial City. The new sulphur plant will have the capacity to process an average of 5,000 t/d of molten sulphur.

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

The production of renewable fuels by retrofitting existing refineries and their infrastructure is witnessing exponential growth. The impact on the existing amine, sour water and sulphur recovery units is inevitable. Based on several case studies, Marco van Son, Shashank Gujale and Tammy Chan of Worley Comprimo discuss the various options available to holistically review the sulphur block to determine the impact and mitigation of processing bio-feed.