Section: CRUSU Market & Features

As producers and regulators become increasingly concerned about the ‘circular economy’, there is increasing focus on regenerating waste sulphuric acid for re-use.

In this case study Johannes Derfler of AGRU Kunststofftechnik reports on how a new condenser design, engineered by OMV and INWA AG using PFA sheets from AGRU, was implemented at OMV refinery in Austria to address maintenance problems due to corrosion of the wet sulphuric acid (WSA) condensers and the follow-up units. As a result of the renovation, maintenance costs have been cut in half, while both maintenance intervals and overall operational safety has increased.

A new burner design for the combustion of natural gas with either combustion air or pure oxygen as the oxidiser has been developed by CS Combustion Solutions. The new Oxijet® -Burner has been designed to perform both start-up and main operation functions with one burner. The key objectives, challenges, and burner design considerations are discussed.

While phosphate fertilizer production represents the main slice of demand for elemental sulphur and sulphuric acid, sulphur fertilizers continue to be a growing sector of demand due to changes in the way that we use sulphur.

CRU’s Sulphur + Sulphuric Acid 2023 Conference and Exhibition takes place at the Sheraton New Orleans, Louisiana, USA, 6-8 November. Take part in this leading annual forum for the global sulphur and sulphuric acid community to learn, connect and do business. Hear from industry leaders and subject experts from around world and across the industry.

Comprimo and Ametek now offer the Analyser Air Control Technology (2ACT) Solution to the industry in which the information for the SRU air control is available 6-7 minutes earlier with the installation of an acid gas feed analyser-based feed forward control. This improvement to conventional SRU combustion air control systems enables operating companies to control their assets closer to design capacity at higher recovery efficiency and with fewer unscheduled outages.

TarT technology, one of 8 Rivers’ decarbonisation technologies, shows promise as an economical, efficient, sour gas sweetening process with near-zero carbon dioxide emissions, and may be key to unlocking access to the world’s sour gas reserves.

The possible failure of refractory in a Claus unit is a concern to both licensors and operators of Claus units. Bob Poteet of WIKA discusses a novel and easy way to monitor the shell temperature of the Claus thermal reactor using proven technology and highlights the benefits a purge-less thermocouple system for high temperature measurement.

The recovery of waste heat from Aurubis’ copper smelting operation in Hamburg is already helping to reduce global carbon emissions and has the potential to provide heat for up to 20,000 homes through the district heating network in Hamburg’s HafenCity. The energy for the network comes from waste heat that Aurubis recovers from their sulphuric acid plant, using unique Alfa Laval plate heat exchanger technology.

This June marks a milestone for this magazine; a platinum jubilee since the very first issue of the magazine was printed in 1953. It began life as the Quarterly Bulletin of the Sulphur Exploration Syndicate. The Syndicate was created in 1952, and was backed by nine major chemical producers, mainly in Britain and the US, who were concerned about dwindling world supplies of sulphur. Though some of these companies have vanished by the wayside over the years, including F.W. Berk and Co. Ltd, British Titan Products, Brotherton & Co., and Charles Tenant & Sons Ltd, others remain household names to this day, including Monsanto, Courtaulds (now part of Akzo-Nobel), and Dunlop (now owned by Goodyear), while Fisons’ fertilizer division was sold to Norsk Hydro in 1982 and today trades as part of Yara.