Magazine: Sulphur

The Sulphur Institute (TSI) has announced the selection of Ron Olson as its agronomist. Olson has over 30 years of experience as an independent consulting agronomist as well as 15 years with Cargill and The Mosaic Company. His agronomic consulting company worked directly with farmers and agricultural retailers offering custom soil sampling and soil analysis, and crop management expertise. The company pioneered the implementation of using precision agriculture tools for taking soil samples on a 2.5 acre grid, converting that data to computer maps and linking that data to GPS/GIS technology to develop crop management programs to achieve maximum economic yields. With Cargill and Mosaic he served as Research and Development Manager and led the team that developed the MicroEssentials™ suite of products., which has grown to become the leading commercial sulphur enhanced fertilizer sold globally.

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

The removal of hydrogen sulphide (H2 S) has become increasingly important as the oil and gas industry moves towards more efficient and sustainable production of lower emission clean fuels. BASF and ExxonMobil* have jointly developed a proprietary amine, OASE® sulfexx™ , to help refiners and gas processors achieve sulphur removal targets while reducing their carbon footprint via lower energy consumption. This new solvent technology is suitable for low and high pressure applications and shows superior performance characteristics over generic and promoted MDEA formulations, as well as sterically hindered amines such as FLEXSORB™ SE and SE Plus.

Sulphur demand losses for production of phosphoric acid are forecast at 2.2 million t/a in 2020. Factoring in demand gains in markets such as Morocco, the sector is expected to see a drop of 800,000 t/a in 2020. Recovery is forecast from 2021 with a 2 million t/a increase forecast.

There was a rapid increase in sulphuric acid demand for copper, uranium and nickel leaching from 1995-2015, but over the past few years growth in this sector has slowed dramatically. Now however there are signs that demand is starting to pick up again with several new projects under development.

Kreber’s R&D department has been researching the prilling of sulphur in pursuit of the ideal process. In this article, T. Nieboer of Kreber recounts the history of prilling up to today, tracing the developments and highlighting the challenges that still remain.

Sulphur demand in Australia has been boosted by the restart of the nickel leaching plant at Ravensthorpe, and new HPAL projects are under development, but a slew of new phosphate projects are not scheduled to consume more acid domestically.

With increasing frequency, companies that have molten sulphur on site must put environmental controls on the vent streams from molten sulphur pits, storage tanks and loading operations. This article* describes the typical characteristics of molten sulphur vent gas streams as well as some of the important chemistry related to these systems in caustic scrubbers. Solids deposition issues observed in the field with caustic scrubbers operating on actual molten sulphur vent gas streams are presented. Design and operational strategies to mitigate plugging in molten sulphur vent gas scrubbers are also summarised in this article by D. J. Sachde, K. E. McIntush, D. L. Mamrosh , and C. M. Beitler of Trimeric Corporation.

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

Ordinarily I try to choose a different subject each issue for an editorial, but as April lengthens towards May, and here in the northern hemisphere we start to see the first signs of summer, there unfortunately remains only one subject that is obsessing every industry, and that is the Covid-19 pandemic and its impact upon every aspect of our lives. Since our last issue we have all had to come to terms with ‘lockdown’ and ‘social distancing’, as the grim toll of deaths climbs in all regions. Here at BCInsight we are working without an office as best we can, and issues of Sulphur will continue to land in your email inboxes, but paper copies of the magazines may take longer to arrive, if at all, as shipping and customs procedures are tightened all around the world, and I can only apologise and ask that you bear with us.