Selective H/sub 2/S caustic scrubber

Conference · Tue Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1985 · Proc. Gas Cond. Conf.; (United States)

OSTI ID:5754704

Kent, V A; Abid, R A

Caustic scrubbing of acid gases has been around in one form or another for many years. These scrubbers typically have been for small gas streams that are more of a nuisance than anything else. If the gas streams were large enough to warrant sweetening, some other type of more capital-intensive sweetening system generally was used. A number of these small scrubbing systems have been as simple as an old cone bottom tank full of caustic with a gas sparger in the bottom of the tank. Other systems were more complex with various type of gas-liquid contactors and fair control systems. In general, they were designed by the end user. The small scrubbers had many problems with plugging and effluent disposal, but they were sufficient at the time. As the price of natural gas increased, these smaller gas streams began to become more valuable. Along with these increasing prices came increasingly stringent environmental restrictions. These restrictions required the H/sub 2/S to be treated before the gas was vented. The gas was then burned converting the H/sub 2/S to SO/sub 2/ before being vented. Again restrictions required that SO/sub 2/ emissions be controlled. The end result was a greater need to remove sulfur containing gases from the atmosphere. This led to increased effort toward trying to solve some of the associated problems with caustic scrubbing. The problem of carbonate formation was addressed by the Heitz patent utilizing short liquid/gas contact times of .01 to .03 seconds. This short contact time was needed when handling gas streams containing carbon dioxide. This was done for several reasons. One was to minimize sodium carbonate formation and therefore minimize plugging problems.

• Research Organization: The Dow Chemical Co., Freeport, TX
• OSTI ID: 5754704
• Report Number(s): CONF-8503199-
• Conference Information: Journal Name: Proc. Gas Cond. Conf.; (United States)
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

03 NATURAL GAS
030300* -- Natural Gas-- Drilling
Production
& Processing
500200 -- Environment
Atmospheric-- Chemicals Monitoring & Transport-- (-1989)
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
AIR POLLUTION
AIR POLLUTION ABATEMENT
CARBON COMPOUNDS
CARBON DIOXIDE
CARBON OXIDES
CARBONATES
CHALCOGENIDES
CHEMICAL REACTIONS
COST
DESULFURIZATION
DRY SCRUBBERS
ENERGY SOURCES
EQUIPMENT
FLUIDS
FOSSIL FUELS
FUEL GAS
FUELS
GAS FUELS
GASES
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
HYDROGEN SULFIDES
NATURAL GAS
OXIDES
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PLUGGING
POLLUTION
POLLUTION ABATEMENT
POLLUTION CONTROL EQUIPMENT
REMOVAL
SCRUBBERS
SCRUBBING
SULFIDES
SULFUR COMPOUNDS
SULFUR DIOXIDE
SULFUR OXIDES