Magazine: Sulphur

Sulphur output in North America continues to decline due to refinery closures and conversions at the same time that acid demand is increasing for metals processing projects.

This issue of Sulphur magazine contains a preview of CRU’s Sulphur + Sulphuric Acid conference in Woodlands, Texas, which is being held from November 3rd to 5th this year, giving delegates the opportunity to meet and discuss some of the trends which are continuing to change the sulphur and sulphuric acid industries. Some of this is echoed in our editorial coverage this issue; the rise of electric vehicles and the continuing electrification of society is changing demand for metals and impacting upon both sulphur and sulphuric acid markets alike. As CRU’s principal analyst Peter Harrison discusses on pages 36-37, battery demand for nickel is leading to a surge in new nickel leaching capacity in Indonesia which is drawing in greatly increased volumes of sulphur, while rising demand for copper is leading to additional volumes of smelter acid from China, India and Indonesia which are impacting the merchant market for acid, as detailed by CRU’s Viviana Alvorado on pages 38-40. In the United States, new lithium mines will require additional sulphur (see pages 22-23). Rare earths and battery metal recovery will form a major topic on the first day of the Sulphur + Sulphuric Acid conference, with speakers from Lithium Americas, one of the pioneers of the new US lithium industry.

Gunnison has started producing pure copper cathodes at its Johnson Camp Mine (JCM) in southeast Arizona, United States, from a solvent extraction-electrowinning (SX-EW) circuit and using leaching technology from Rio Tinto-owned Nuton. As well as giving Gunnison exclusive rights to deploy the proprietary process on run-of-mine ore, Nuton is a financial partner of the Phoenix-headquartered mine developer which has restarted copper production at past-producing JCM. The company’s next goal is to ramp-up to nameplate plant capacity of 25 million lbs/year (11,300 t/a) of finished copper.

In this CRU Insight, Peter Harrisson reports on how battery materials have become a powerful driver of sulphur consumption growth.

Fluor explores the versatile potential of oxygen enrichment for various revamp and debottlenecking opportunities.

QMax Industries explains why effective steam and condensate management is essential to the performance, safety, and reliability of sulphur recovery units.

CS Combustion Solutions introduces the SR-P sulphur atomiser nozzle to the sulphuric acid process, combining the high-quality atomisation of ultrasonic systems with the affordability and simplicity of pressure atomisers.

SulGas® KL, South-East Asia’s sulphur recovery and gas treating conference organised by Three Ten Initiative Technologies LLP, made its debut from 2-3 July 2025, at Impiana KLCC, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Advanced SRUs and decarbonisation technologies position LNG for net-zero goals by 2050. Mahin Rameshni and Stephen Santo of RATE USA review sulphur management strategies for LNG, from ppm-level H2 S scavenging and non-conventional liquid redox to Claus SRUs, and introduces RATE’s patented technologies to achieve >99.9% recovery, operational stability, and decarbonisation alignment amid regulatory and market challenges.

CRU's analyst Viviana Alvarado discusses the effect of smelter outages and maintenance, a copper concentrate shortage, and Asian capacity ramp ups, on sulphuric acid supply and prices.