Section: CRUSU Market & Features

While Brazil is the largest consumer, trade in acid in South America has been dominated

The US and Israel attacks on Iran and the Iranian response have thrown commodity markets into chaos, with sulphur and sulphuric acid particularly affected.

The US Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) has released its final investigation report into the fatal release of hydrogen sulphide at the PEMEX Deer Park Refinery in Texas in October 2024.

With the decline of Venezuela’s production, Canada’s oil sands now represent 90% of all oil sands output, and a significant share of North America’s sulphur production.

• Market sentiment has shifted decisively from bearish to bullish as the conflict in the Middle East has triggers a significant price rally.

Conflict in the Middle East has halted all vessel traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, effectively paralysing a region that accounts for 48% of global seaborne sulphur trade. As a result, the sulphur spot market has ground to a halt, with prices notionally holding unchanged in the $490-515/t f.o.b. range simply due to a lack of activity. No spot offers were reported out of the Middle East.

Sulphur recovery units in petroleum refineries and natural gas processing plants utilise incineration as a final treatment step for tail gas, ensuring that residual sulphur compounds are converted to less harmful emissions. Elmo Nasato of Nasato Consulting Ltd compares the two sulphur plant incinerator options – thermal incineration and catalytic incineration – including key considerations for policymakers, businesses, and environmental advocates.

The 8th SulGas® Mumbai sulphur recovery and gas treating conference and exhibition, organised by Three Ten Initiative Technologies LLP, took place on 5 and 6 February 2026. We report on some of the key topics on the agenda.

Efficient sulphur recovery is essential for modern refineries to meet stringent environmental regulations and support sustainability goals. Fluor examines the key design considerations, smart design strategies and flexible sulphur block configurations that are essential in achieving an overall optimised design. Together, these strategies enhance efficiency, reduce emissions, improve reliability, and provide flexibility for changing crude qualities, ensuring compliant and economically robust refinery operations.

Worley Comprimo has carried out an evaluation of technologies allowing 99.8+% sulphur recovery for an Indian refinery case. The TopClaus process was compared to alternative technologies, focussing on modern technical challenges, investment operation and maintenance costs, as well as CO2 considerations.