Section: CRUSU Market & Features

Sulphur is becoming an increasingly important crop nutrient, due to a combination of lower airborne sulphur emissions, the increasing prevalence of high analysis fertilizers, and higher cropping intensities.

RSK and its subsidiary ADAS have developed a sustainable solution for the disposal of sulphur waste generated from a natural gas processing facility in Iraq. C. Teulon of RSK reports on the research that was carried out to test whether the waste sulphur from a biological sulphur removal process could be applied in agriculture to increase the quality and quantity of crops in Iraq.

Although the number of new sour gas developments has slowed in recent years compared to the large boost of the previous decade, sour gas projects continue to be a major source of new sulphur production.

Considering the current shift to produce biofuels instead of conventional oil products, M. van Son of Comprimo discusses the impact that this may have on the ability to process the sour water acid gas streams produced in existing or new sour water strippers.

Developments in sulphuric acid technology and engineering know-how are highlighted by recent project case studies from DuPont Clean Technologies, Metso Outotec and thyssenkrupp Uhde.

The Valkyrie™ process was first introduced as a reborn version of redox technology for treating H2 S in natural gas processing.In this article Streamline Innovations Inc. highlights some of the new developments and successful applications of the Valkyrie process and its redox technology, in both gas and water streams.

M. Rameshni and S. Santo of RATE discuss different sour water stripping gas processing options, depending on contaminants in the sour water streams and site-specific requirements.

New low-cost metal oxide solid scavengers for hydrogen sulphide (H2 S) removal from wet and dry natural gas have been developed and deployed at commercial scale. The desulphurisation process uses a proprietary sorbent chemistry to achieve a high sulphur capacity and removal efficiency. G. Alptekin, F. Kugler and M. Schaefer of SulfaTrap LLC describe the new technology and its performance.

China is the world’s largest importer of sulphur, mainly to feed domestic phosphate production. Sour gas in Sichuan and new refinery production, coupled with rationalisation in the phosphate sector are all leading to reduced imports, while new smelters are increasing sulphuric acid production and reducing the need for pyrite-based and sulphur burning acid production.

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