Sulphur
The magazine for the sulphur and sulphuric acid industries

Latest issue:
January/February 2020

• Phosphates: Surviving the slump
  After a poor 2019, when global demand contracted by nearly 2.5%, phosphate markets are expected to rebound in 2020. Saudi Arabia and Morocco dominate new capacity additions while India and Brazil continue to be the key importers. US and Chinese production is in slow decline, meanwhile.

  Full article: 2,247 words | add to basket (£25)

• The challenges facing refiners
  The refining industry, the source of half of the world's elemental sulphur, continues to face major structural changes from changing feedstock and product slates and increasing regulatory burdens.

  Full article: 2,449 words | add to basket (£25)

• Sulphur's price collapse
  Jerry d'Aquin of ConSul Inc. looks at the impact of falling sulphur prices on the US market.

  Full article: 848 words | add to basket (£25)

• MESPON 2019
  The Sixth Annual MESPON Forum took place 7-10 October at the Rosewood Hotel Abu Dhabi, where the global sour gas and sulphur community gathered for four days of networking, learning, and collaboration. This year's theme highlighted new trends, innovations and best practices in the field of sour gas processing that enhance operations.

  Full article: 1,535 words | add to basket (£25)

• Sulphuric acid plant health check
  Sulphuric acid plant operators juggle multiple issues trying to keep their plants running efficiently and reliably. With the revolutionary ClearView™ process health monitoring solution, as well the DynSOx™ software for simulating dynamic operation, Haldor Topsoe strives to bring digital services with real and tangible operational benefits to the sulphuric acid industry. P. Szafran and M. Granroth discuss how together these digital services can help acid plant operators meet their daily targets.

  Full article: 5,197 words | add to basket (£25)

• Hydrocarbon removal from sour water systems
  Hydrocarbon contamination of sour water streams feeding sour water strippers is a well-known challenge in the refining and gas processing industry. The source of this challenge is the formation of a stable oil emulsion in an aqueous phase that may contain both H2S and NH3. The typical approach to the problem involves large residence time tanks with the assumption that droplet settling will occur over a long enough time frame. In practice, droplet settling is very slow due to a variety of reasons, and as a result, operators encounter sour water heat exchanger fouling, stripper fouling, hydrocarbon excursions to sulphur recovery units along with other operating challenges. M. Thundyil, D. Seeger and E. McIntosh of Transcend Solutions present a case study of the TORSEP™ oil and solids removal system for contamination removal from a sour water feed stream. The case study illustrates the effect on heat exchanger fouling along with the effect of the variation of several system parameters on operating performance and economics.

  Full article: 2,465 words | add to basket (£25)

• Improve asset integrity by predicting corrosion
  Using case studies of a refinery amine unit and a sour water stripper (SWS), U. M. Sridhar of Three Ten Initiative Technologies LLP, N. A. Hatcher and R. H. Weiland of Optimized Gas Treating Inc. demonstrate the capabilities of a mechanistic, chemistry-based, truly predictive model for calculating corrosion rates for various amines and for sour water. At a time when asset integrity is much sought after, the utility of this fully predictive model is to prevent failures before they occur, rationally select materials of construction, enhance plant safety, and mitigate risk.

  Full article: 2,194 words | add to basket (£25)

• Refinery green fuel integration with a sulphur complex
  M. van Son and S. Sreejit of Comprimo present a case study involving the design and potential integration of the sour water and acid gas treatment units for a renewable diesel facility with an existing refinery sulphur complex. The case study evaluates the potential for operating cost reduction by integrating an enrichment loop in the acid gas treatment plant as well as for using the existing infrastructure of the refinery to limit emissions.

  Full article: 4,048 words | add to basket (£25)