Purification of Claus plant tail gas by water washing

Patent · Tue Mar 19 04:00:00 EDT 1974

OSTI ID:7248674

Beavon, D K

A method for reducing sulfur losses present in the tail gas of Claus plant emissions is described which, unlike prior art Claus tail gas treatments, eliminates material water pollution problems and avoids passing the process gas through a heat exchanger which would be subject to plugging. The process involves passing the Claus effluent to a relatively high temperature (150-160/sup 0/F) reaction-absorption zone where, in the presence of water as the absorption-reaction medium, sulfur is formed by the reaction of hydrogen sulfide, sulfur dioxide, and other sulfurous compounds. The water containing sulfur and other sulfurous compounds is then recycled back to one of the Claus conversion stages where the formed sulfurous compounds dissociate into S, H/sub 2/S, and SO/sub 2/ for conversion to elemental S in the Claus reactor. The residual gas stream is then passed to a second absorption zone to remove residual SO/sub 2/ and to a final water condensation zone before being vented to the atmosphere.

• Assignee: Ralph M. Parsons Co.
• Patent Number(s): US 3798316
• OSTI ID: 7248674
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

500200* -- Environment
Atmospheric-- Chemicals Monitoring & Transport-- (-1989)
520200 -- Environment
Aquatic-- Chemicals Monitoring & Transport-- (-1989)
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
AIR POLLUTION
CHALCOGENIDES
CHEMICAL REACTIONS
CLAUS PROCESS
CLEANING
CONTROL
DESULFURIZATION
ELEMENTS
EMISSION
ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS
GASEOUS WASTES
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
HYDROGEN SULFIDES
NONMETALS
OXIDES
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
POLLUTION
PURIFICATION
REMOVAL
REPROCESSING
SEPARATION PROCESSES
SULFIDES
SULFUR
SULFUR COMPOUNDS
SULFUR DIOXIDE
SULFUR OXIDES
WASHING
WASTES
WATER POLLUTION