6 replies to this topic

Hi,

I am a final year undergraduate student, currently I'm doing a project on improving the production of sulpfuric acid.

For my preliminary study, I'm wondering, is it possible to built the sulfuric acid plant near to a petroleum refinery, so that I could get an ease in obtaining sulfur as my raw materials.
Also, is that the fact that most of the petroleum refinery in Canada using Claus Process or COld Bed Adsorption to treat H2S?

Hope someone could help me with this. Thank you.

Cheers,

Cherlyn

[Zauberberg]

Cherlyn,

Sulfuric acid is usually produced within petroleum refinery by using spent acid regeneration process. Spent acid comes directly from H2SO4 Alkylation unit. This process is very convenient because it eliminates spent acid disposal concerns and it also offers continuous supply of fresh H2SO4 catalyst for alkylation reactions.

Haldor-Topsoe company has developed WSA process for sulfuric acid production from off-gases containing H2S:
http://www.topsoe.co...47?OpenDocument

[Andrei]

Cherlyn,

Yes it is possible to build the sulfuric acid gas near an refinery plant.
But even better is to build it near a Gas Plant, especially the ones processing sour gas.
I do not know what is your location, but if you travel around Central and South Alberta and in some parts of British Columbia you will see from the road big piles of sulphur sitting near gas plants. You will not see piles of sulphur near Edmonton of Red Deer refineries, but you will see piles of coke there. I personally done work in a lot of these sites.
Claus process is widely used in Canada to remove sulphur from sour gas.
In refineries there are other processes to remove sulfur from oil products.

Regards,
Andrei

Thank you Zauberberg and Andrei for your response.

I found a potential location in Malaysia, where a few LNG plants was located. But, the crude oil in Malaysia is quite sweet. Also, I could't find information on market for sulfuric acid around Asean region.

South and Central of Alberta, British columbia. Is there any sulfuric acid plant in that location?
Or any other location you would suggest for a sulfuric acid plant?

What are the environmental aspect for building a sulfuric acid plant beside a gas plant? Any other detrimental effect?

Thanks for your information.

Cheers,
Cherlyn

[Zauberberg]

WSA process is environmentally-free, it doesn't generate any waste streams. According to the information from process licensor, system is energy efficient and it is based on catalysts which are "currently used in more than one third of the world's sulphuric acid production".

For treating/conversion of refinery waste gas streams read more at: http://www.topsoe.co.....g Seminar.pdf

[Andrei]

Regardless of what any licensor may say about how safe and environmentally friendly is their technology. a sulfuric acid production site will not be a pretty site anyways.
Haldor Topsoe is mentioning a 3 ppmv SO3 emission from their plant. That figure doesn't mean anything to me, because as an operator I have always the possibility to introduce dilution air and keep that figure low. 3 ppmv SO3 is huge to me and is at least above the human odor perception limit. In other words it will stink like hell around there.
In 1980's I had the opportunity to work for a period, short fortunately, in several sulfuric acid plants. All the windows of the nearby buildings were not transparent anymore, and that's because of SO3. What about the lungs of the people living there?... It's true that the technologies and plants I've seen were old, and huge progresses were made since than, but still, accidents can happen' even if the most advanced technologies are used.
May I ask how wide is your research area? One time you say Canada, and the other Malaysia, on the other side of the planet. I think you should narrow down a little bit the area of your study.

Andrei

Thanks again. This is really interesting. I will consider both Claus and WSA. My research area can any part of the world. I'm searching for a best location to place my plant and decisions depends on the amount of information I get.

Thanks Andrei and Zauberberg, I will have to ask again if I have any more enquiries.

Thank you so much.