Sulfur recovery plant and process using oxygen

Patent · Tue Jan 17 04:00:00 EST 1989

OSTI ID:6227780

Palm, J W

This patent describes a process for the recovery of sulfur from a gaseous stream containing hydrogen sulfide, the process comprising the steps of: (a) introducing a thermal reaction mixture comprising (1) the gaseous stream containing hydrogen sulfide, and (2) an oxygen-enriched stream of air or pure oxygen into a combustion zone of a Claus furnace; (b) combusting the thermal reaction mixture in the Claus furnace to thereby produce hot combustion gases comprising hydrogen sulfide, sulfur dioxide, carbon dioxide, water, and elemental sulfur; (c) introducing the hot combustion gases into a Claus catalytic reactor; (d) subjecting the hot combustion gases in the catalytic reactor to Claus reaction conditions in the presence of a Claus catalyst to thereby produce a Claus plant gaseous effluent stream comprising hydrogen sulfide, sulfur dioxide, carbon dioxide, water, and elemental sulfur; (e) introducing the Claus plant gaseous effluent into a condenser to thereby produce liquid sulfur, which is recovered, and a gaseous condenser effluent, which comprises hydrogen sulfide, sulfur dioxide, carbon dioxide and water; (f) converting substantially all sulfur species in the gaseous condenser effluent to hydrogen sulfide, to thereby form a condenser effluent comprising hydrogen sulfide, carbon dioxide and water; (g) removing water from the condenser effluent from step (f); and (h) moderating the temperature in the Claus furnace by returning at least a portion of the dried condenser effluent from step (g), as a diluent stream, to a combustion zone of the Claus furnace in step (a) above.

• Assignee: Amoco Corp., Chicago, IL
• Patent Number(s): US 4798716
• OSTI ID: 6227780
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

02 PETROLEUM
020400* -- Petroleum-- Processing
AIR
CHALCOGENIDES
CHEMICAL REACTORS
CLAUS PROCESS
COMBUSTION CONTROL
CONDENSERS
CONTROL
DEHYDRATION
DESIGN
ELEMENTS
ENRICHMENT
FLUIDS
FURNACES
GASES
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
HYDROGEN SULFIDES
NONMETALS
OXYGEN ENRICHMENT
RECOVERY
SULFIDES
SULFUR
SULFUR COMPOUNDS
TEMPERATURE CONTROL