Section: CRUSU Market & Features

As the world looks to a lower carbon future, refineries are having to examine their operating models, and look to, for example, renewable hydrogen production for desulphurisation technologies.

N. A. Hatcher, D. R. Jensen , and P. L. Ott of Optimized Gas Treating Inc. provide a technology overview of ProBot™ – a unit monitoring system developed by OGT to digitalise the sulphur processing assets in a facility in a manner that facilitates knowledge retention, rapid optimisation, and plant troubleshooting. ProBot™ has been built to allow rapid access to a virtual plant platform that provides advice, training and, monitoring to enable more efficient, safe, reliable, and environmentally friendly plant operations.

Import duties on phosphates from Morocco and Russia imposed by the US government in 2021 have compounded a lack of availability of phosphate fertilizer caused by Chinese export restrictions and led to higher prices for US farmers. Are there knock-on effects possible for sulphuric acid demand?

A look at papers presented at CRU’s annual Sulphur + Sulphuric Acid conference, which was once again held virtually, in November 2021.

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

Catalytic converters are the heart and hub of sulphuric acid plants. Converter replacement of equipment that has come to the end of its life is an opportunity to make improvements to the performance, productivity, reliability, durability and plant emissions. NORAM discusses design and project execution considerations for SO2 catalytic converter replacement and Chemetics considers the challenges and opportunities of converter retrofits.

Sulphur processing from sour gas fields dominates regional production, but the geographical remoteness of the area from end use markets and restrictions on sulphur storage means that producers often opt to reinject acid gas into oil and gas wells.

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

A seasonal decline in weather conditions in the eastern Atlantic will hinder operations at Jorf Lasfar in Morocco through the end of 2021 and into 2022. In South Africa, port congestion problems were challenging at Richard’s Bay with vessels subjected to 15 day wait times, increasing demurrage costs.

As sulphur recovery units operate at progressively higher temperatures, creep stress in the furnace refractory lining can lead to deformation or even failure of the bricks and require the shutdown of the SRU. UK-based DSF Refractories have developed a product which minimises creep stress damage at high temperatures, for a longer-lived furnace lining.