Brimstone STS Ltd. today announced a new partnership with Sulphur Recovery Engineering Inc (SRE). The two companies say that this collaboration will bring together decades of experience and the latest technology in support of the sulphur recovery and gas treating industry worldwide.
Haldor Topsoe and Comprimo® have announced a global strategic alliance to jointly license the TopClaus sulphur removal and recovery technology. TopClaus combines Topsoe’s energy efficient wet sulphuric acid (WSA) process with the industry-standard Claus process, enabling plant operators to handle acid gases and achieve sulphur removal efficiencies of above 99.9%. The Claus part of the unit recovers elemental sulphur from acid gases, and the tail gases from the Claus unit are then treated in the WSA unit, where the remaining sulphur compounds are converted into sulphuric acid.
DuPont Clean Technologies has announced the successful startup and performance test of a 300,000 t/a STRATCO® alkylation unit licensed at the Hengli Petrochemical Company’s new refinery complex on Changxing Island in the Harbour Industrial Zone, China. The new alkylation unit enables Hengli to produce high-quality alkylate from a 100% isobutylene feed stream, catalysed by sulphuric acid. This first-of-a-kind unit was developed through DuPont research into the best ways to maximise product octane and minimise end point with this feedstock. Hengli had awarded DuPont the contract for the new alkylation unit as well as a MECS® sulphuric acid regeneration unit in 2015.
US crude production dropped rapidly during April and May, but figures released by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) showed that this had plateaued and there have been some well reactivations and drawdowns from crude stocks. Total production curtailments in North America were more than 2.5 million bbl/d in May. ConocoPhillips Chairman and CEO Ryan Lance said in remarks to the media that a return to pre-outbreak production levels of 13 million bbl/d looked “pretty difficult”, although a recovery to 11 million bbl/d or possibly as high as 12 million bbl/d would be possible, depending upon OPEC moves. About one third of the company’s production was shut in as of the start of June – some 400,000 bbl/d. Lance argued that low cost shale oil resources still exist in the US, but there will be pressure on companies to reduce capital spending. The Covid19 outbreak has had a major impact in investment announcements, with a large number of project delays in the US due to uncertainty over future demand levels. Planned US exploration and production expenditure is down by 50% for the second half of 2020, while the rig count was down 60% on February.
On June 30th, following clearance from the European Commission, Outotec completed the year-long merger of Metso’s Minerals business with Outotec via a partial demerger of Metso. The newly formed company, Metso Outotec, will focus on leadership in sustainable minerals and metals processing and recycling technologies. Headquartered in Finland, Metso Outotec employs over 15,000 professionals in more than 50 countries and its combined sales for 2019 were e4.2 billion.
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.
West Texas Intermediate (WTI) forward oil prices for May dropped into negative territory during mid-April, on fears of lack of storage capacity to deal with the excess production. Forward prices for June were also nosing to equally unprecedentedly low levels.Elsewhere, Brent Crude spot prices dropped to $20/bbl, a fall of $50/bbl from the start of 2020.
The Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. (ADNOC) has awarded two EPC contracts with a total value of more than $1.65 billion for the offshore Dalma sour gas development, 190 km northwest of Abu Dhabi city. Dalma is one of the fields in the offshore Ghasha ultra-sour gas concession, which ADNOC views as central to the UAE achieving self-sufficiency in domestic gas supplies.
China’s copper industry is facing difficulties caused by the coronavirus outbreak in the country. Prolonged factory closures, particularly in Hubei province, at the centre of the outbreak, as well as neighbouring Guangdong and Zhejiang, also badly affected, have caused a slump in demand for copper domestically as copper fabricators remain on extended closure. However, smelters have resisted cutting production. Daye Nonferrous, based in Huangshi at the centre of coronavirus outbreak, continues to operate at 80% of its 600,000 t/a capacity for 1Q 2020, according to the company, in spite of quarantine and transport restrictions which have reduced truck shipments to the smelter – Daye is reportedly still able to receive copper concentrate shipments via the Yangtze River to Huangshi port.
The Ma’aden Wa’ad Al Shamal Phosphate Company (MWSPC) has signed a service agreement for a period of three years with DuPont Clean Technologies for its sulphuric acid plant at Sirhan. The service programme will include activity testing of catalyst samples, evaluation of catalyst performance, plant optimisation, troubleshooting and management of catalyst replacement. DuPont says that it will also track plant performance and assess its overall health using pre-agreed metrics and its proprietary PeGASyS™ gas chromatography system, which can be used to detect possible leaks in gas-gas heat exchangers, identify SO2 gas bypassing and measure overall plant conversion in order to optimise plant operation, reduce SO 2 emissions, increase production and improve converter performance.