Magazine: Sulphur

Shell Global Solutions International BV (Shell) has awarded Worley two contracts for PT Pertamina EP Cepu’s (PEPC) new sulphuric acid plant in Indonesia. This plant is part of the Jambaran-Tiung Biru utilised gas field project for PEPC, which is a subsidiary of PT Pertamina-Indonesia’s state-owned energy company. Under the contracts, Worley will supply be supplying Chemetics’ cooled oxidation reactor (CORE) technology. This is the first time that CORE will be paired with Shell’s Cansolv SO2 capture technology. Worley gained the Chemetics technology as part of its Jacobs Energy, Chemicals and Resources acquisition last year. Cansolv controls the emissions and captures additional by-product value from the sulphur dioxide emitted from various refinery flue gas streams (such as cracking units, process heaters and boilers), sulphur plants and spent acid regeneration units. Sulphur dioxide can be recycled to the sulphur recovery unit to be produced as marketable sulphur or converted to sulphuric acid.

BASF has developed a new generation of promoter system compatible with MDEA solutions named OASE® yellow. The new promoter system increases the selectivity and capacity of the amine solvent, resulting in improved performance of tail gas treating units and allowing the processing of more sour crudes. A. Kern and G. Vorberg of BASF discuss two case studies demonstrating the benefits of OASE yellow.

When producing from shale reservoirs, technologies such as horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing have been used successfully to access hydrocarbons that otherwise could not be. A less publicised issue in producing from certain hot shale gas reservoirs (T > 100°C) is the presence of H2 S and organo-sulphur compounds in the production fluids. In trying to understand the non-biogenic sources of H2 S, Alberta Sulphur Research Ltd has been involved in studying the decomposition of chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing when exposed to high temperature and high pressure.R.A. Marriott, J.J. Marrugo-Hernandez and R. Prinsloo of ASRL discuss the findings of the study.

Siroj Loikov has been appointed First Deputy CEO of PhosAgro. Loikov, who was previously Deputy CEO in charge of international projects and personnel policy, will coordinate the work of the company’s headquarters in Moscow, its management company in Cherepovets and the company’s production sites. He will also oversee the implementation of the PhosAgro’s priority development projects and will be responsible for the appointment, development and assessment of the work of the company’s top management.

With the ongoing changes in gas field and refinery feedstock compositions, many sulphur recovery units around the world are facing turndown scenarios to such an extent that it is difficult to meet stringent environmental regulations. Equipment and instrumentation behave differently under turndown conditions, and not always in ways that are desirable. Start-ups and shutdowns can place demands on the equipment that are more severe than years of normal operation. In this article, Optimized Gas Treating, Sulfur Recovery Engineering and Comprimo share some of their learnings and experiences of these scenarios.

What are the limits for future single stream sulphuric acid plant capacities? H. Storch, C. Bartlett, and S. Mohsler of Outotec discuss design considerations for large capacity sulphuric acid plants with reference to the world’s largest acid plants built to date.

The Sulphur Institute is holding its annual meeting in Chicago, Illinois this year from April 20th-22nd.

Applied Analytics discusses potential improvements made possible with data and analytical measurements fed into improved mathematical models to produce a more proactive approach to control and better performance of sulphur recovery units, AMETEK Process Instruments explains the benefits of feed forward control, SICK reports on reliable continuous emission monitoring systems and WIKA introduces a new purge-free system to measure refractory temperature in the Claus reaction furnace.

This year appears to be determined to illustrate the limitations of forecasting. Projecting trend lines into the future, looking at expected completion dates for major projects and global economic projections are all worthwhile activities, and can provide valuable insights for business people, but any prediction is apt to be derailed by what one of our prime ministers supposedly once described airily as; “events, dear boy, events.”

Although North America is no longer the world’s largest sulphur exporter, it remains a major producer and consumer, and there are still significant exports and imports of sulphur into and out of the region.