Sour gas production is costly because hydrogen sulphide and carbon dioxide require extensive sweetening, sulphur recovery, safety, and compliance infrastructure, with sulphur sales helping offset but rarely eliminating those added costs.
Nitrogen markets, and urea in particular, have been impacted by a series of geopolitical shocks in recent years which have driven markets over and above normal market factors such as feedstock and shipping costs, crop prices etc.
For many years confined to pilot projects and feasibility studies, biomass based gasification is seeing rapid take up in China for methanol production and may mark a new era in syngas generation.
A market already characterised by tight supply has been thrown into chaos by the Iran war and reduction of phosphate exports from the Gulf at the knock on effect on sulphur prices, a key input into MAP/DAP production.
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.
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.