A New Approach to Claus Eliminating the Claus Furnace - Small Change, Big Impact

摘要

A novel approach for the conversion of hydrogen sulfide to elemental sulfur is discussed. This technology is expected to extend the economic range for Claus plants to 1 ton/day or less. The method offers an alternative to the conventional furnace-based "modified Claus" method for sulfur recovery using a patented catalyst for sulfur production, and achieves near equilibrium H2S conversion and selectivity to sulfur in a fraction of the volume of a conventional Claus reaction furnace. The catalyst contains components that address typical catalyst deactivation mechanisms related to sulfur poisoning and coking in acid gas and start-up/shut-down conditions using fuel gas. Performance data will be shared. This technology has a number of advantages, including: improved reaction efficiency, improved turn-down, reduced COS and CS_2 formation, reduction of soot formation, near seamless switching between acid gas/fuel gas and oxygen breakthrough during startup or shutdown is eliminated. A new Claus design is proposed that addresses the challenges of post-combustion mixing for contaminant destruction, improves overall yield, reduces air requirement due to rapid reaction quenching, and reduces H_2S/H_2S_X content in the produced sulfur. The new design reduces interconnect piping and sulfur rundown piping, it also reduces the overall plant footprint significantly, which in turn reduces capital cost.