Magazine: Sulphur

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

A seasonal decline in weather conditions in the eastern Atlantic will hinder operations at Jorf Lasfar in Morocco through the end of 2021 and into 2022. In South Africa, port congestion problems were challenging at Richard’s Bay with vessels subjected to 15 day wait times, increasing demurrage costs.

As sulphur recovery units operate at progressively higher temperatures, creep stress in the furnace refractory lining can lead to deformation or even failure of the bricks and require the shutdown of the SRU. UK-based DSF Refractories have developed a product which minimises creep stress damage at high temperatures, for a longer-lived furnace lining.

Sulphur is becoming an increasingly important crop nutrient, due to a combination of lower airborne sulphur emissions, the increasing prevalence of high analysis fertilizers, and higher cropping intensities.

Th e past year has seen an extraordinary run-up in sulphur and sulphuric acid prices, the former from a low of around $50-70/t f.o.b. in mid-2020 to more than $100/t higher than that at the end of Q1 2021. Prices then plateaued for much of this year, but they have begun moving inexorably upwards again in the past couple of months, drawn by rapidly rising phosphate prices, and Middle East sulphur rates recently breached price levels not seen since 2012.

RSK and its subsidiary ADAS have developed a sustainable solution for the disposal of sulphur waste generated from a natural gas processing facility in Iraq. C. Teulon of RSK reports on the research that was carried out to test whether the waste sulphur from a biological sulphur removal process could be applied in agriculture to increase the quality and quantity of crops in Iraq.

Although the number of new sour gas developments has slowed in recent years compared to the large boost of the previous decade, sour gas projects continue to be a major source of new sulphur production.

Considering the current shift to produce biofuels instead of conventional oil products, M. van Son of Comprimo discusses the impact that this may have on the ability to process the sour water acid gas streams produced in existing or new sour water strippers.

Lithium-boron miner ioneer Ltd has awarded DuPont Clean Technologies a contract for the license, engineering, and supply of proprietary equipment for a planned sulphuric acid plant at the company’s Rhyolite Ridge project in Nevada. DuPont will work with engineering partner SNC-Lavalin on the plant design, using MECS® sulphuric acid technology for the 3,500 t/d sulphur-burning unit, as well as controls that limit emissions to among the lowest in the world for this type of facility. DuPont will also supply its latest generation MECSSuper GEAR® ™ catalyst and other critical proprietary equipment. The contract is conditional on a final investment decision by the ioneer board of directors.

Developments in sulphuric acid technology and engineering know-how are highlighted by recent project case studies from DuPont Clean Technologies, Metso Outotec and thyssenkrupp Uhde.