Effective and efficient wastewater management is a vital task that is being aided by the introduction of new treatment technologies. The recovery of economically-valuable nutrients from wastewaters is another priority.
Saudi Aramco has confirmed a phased development approach for its $100 billion-plus Jafurah unconventional onshore gas project, which is expected to produce up to 2 billion cubic feet per day of gas by 2030, raising the company’s overall gas production capacity by 50% over that time frame. Aramco says that the first development phase for the Jafurah gas plant is likely to come on stream by 2025, and it is progressing with the phased development of a project that will reach a raw gas processing capacity of 3.1 bcf/d.
Inshan S. Mohammed of Sulfur Recovery Engineering shares lessons learned from a recent SRU shutdown assistance programme involving an error with the tags used within the BMS system installed on a direct-fired reheater.
Marco van Son and Frank Bela of Comprimo share lessons learned from SRU war stories, including: inadvertent NH3 destruction in an oxidising atmosphere, rich amine emulsion, SWS fixed valve trays, H2 spiking of SRU feed, rich amine flash drum early warning, V-ball fuel gas safety shutoff valves, TGTU methyl mercaptan, and commissioning and Murphy’s Law.
Saudi Arabia’s Ras Al-Khair Industrial City has signed an industrial land agreement with local firm Gulf Copper to develop a copper smelting and casting plant at an investment $319.30 million. The project would be developed on a plot spanning more than 250,000 square metres in the industrial city. No construction timelines were given. The Saudi government has previously signed agreements with Trafigura and Saudi-based Modern Mineral Holding to develop a 400,000 t/a copper smelter at Ras Al Khair which would also include 200,000 t/a of zinc and 55,000 t/a of lead smelter capacity at a projected cost of $2.8 billion.
While most sulphuric acid demand for phosphates is based on the production of phosphate fertilizer, non-fertilizer sources of demand such as animal feed and industrial processes additionally represent a relatively small but growing sector of the market.
The purpose of this article is to emphasise the lessons learned by ADNOC Sour Gas in the material upgrading of the Shah sulphur granulation plant due to severe corrosion of the aluminium components. The sulphur granulation plant was commissioned in 2015 and consists of a total of 12 granulating systems used for solidifying and granulating the liquid sulphur. The study focused on the corroded areas, namely the GX plenum chambers, the lower section of the granulator exhaust stack, the scrubber inlet and the discharge ducting.
Temperature dependent rate constants for the hydrolysis of CS2 and COS across Claus Al2 O3 and TiO2 catalysts are valuable tools for the design and optimisation of new, as well as existing, sulphur recovery units. In this context, Alberta Sulphur Research Ltd (ASRL) has measured CS2 and COS hydrolysis rates over a range of temperatures for both Al2 O3 and TiO2 catalysts under start-of-run and, more recently, end-of-run first converter conditions. In this article Christopher Lavery, Dao Li, Ruohong Sui, and Robert A. Marriott of ASRL report on their methodology and the utility of the kinetics calculated from their data and draw comparisons between the start-of-run and end-of-run results.
Meena Chauhan, Head of Sulphur and Sulphuric Acid Research, Argus Media, assesses price trends and the market outlook for sulphur.
By recovering waste heat as process steam or electrical energy, technologies are available that can help sulphuric acid plants meet their energy goals. Colin Shore of Elessent Clean Technologies discusses how MECS® HRS™ technology can offer a sustainable solution to enhance sulphuric acid plant performance, while lowering its carbon emissions.