Large-plant sulfur recovery processes stress efficiency

Journal Article · Mon May 23 04:00:00 EDT 1994 · Oil and Gas Journal; (United States)

OSTI ID:7281599

Goar, B G; Nasato, E ^[1]

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1. Goar, Allison Associates Inc., Tyler, TX (United States)

Natural-gas processing in the future will encounter significantly more raw sour gas, i.e., gas containing 15--20 mol % H[sub 2]S or greater. Deciding whether to make the significant investment to build a sour-gas treating and sulfur-recovery plant involves many considerations. An operator selecting the optimum gas treating, sulfur recovery, and tail-gas cleanup processes must choose each carefully because each upstream step can affect design and operation of subsequent downstream steps. Reviewed here are current gas treating and sulfur-recovery processes in use today. For this purpose, plants that process sour gas and recover 50 long tons/day (ltd) or more of sulfur will be considered. Sample plants employing major technologies are listed in a table. Such other sulfur recovery, removal processes as Lo-Cat, SulFerox, Stretford, Iron Sponge, SulfaTreat, and Sulfa-Scrub are available to industry. But these processes are normally considered only when the total sulfur to be handled is 15--20 ltd or less. Additionally, many are troublesome to operate and have relatively high operating costs.

• OSTI ID: 7281599
• Journal Information: Oil and Gas Journal; (United States), Journal Name: Oil and Gas Journal; (United States) Vol. 92:21; ISSN OIGJAV; ISSN 0030-1388
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

03 NATURAL GAS
030300* -- Natural Gas-- Drilling
Production
& Processing
CHEMICAL REACTIONS
DESULFURIZATION
DIAGRAMS
ELEMENTS
ENERGY SOURCES
FLOWSHEETS
FLUIDS
FOSSIL FUELS
FUEL GAS
FUELS
GAS FUELS
GASES
INDUSTRIAL PLANTS
MANAGEMENT
MATERIALS RECOVERY
NATURAL GAS
NATURAL GAS PROCESSING PLANTS
NONMETALS
PROCESSING
SEPARATION PROCESSES
SULFUR
TECHNOLOGY ASSESSMENT
WASTE MANAGEMENT
WASTE PROCESSING