Wet sulfuric acid process
The wet sulfuric acid process (WSA process) is one out of many gas desulfurization processes on the market today. Since its introduction in the 1980s, it has been recognised as an efficient process for recovering sulfur from various process gasses in the form of commercial quality sulfuric acid (H2SO4). The WSA process is applied in all industries where removal of sulfur is an issue.
Wet catalysis processes differ from other contact sulfuric acid processes in that the feed gas still contains moisture when it comes into contact with the catalyst. The sulfur trioxide formed by catalytic oxidation of the sulfur dioxide reacts instantly with the moisture to produce sulfuric acid in the vapour phase to an extent determined by the temperature. Liquid acid is subsequently formed by condensation of the sulfuric acid vapour and not by absorption of the sulfur trioxide in concentrated sulfuric acid, as is the case in contact processes based on dry gases.
The concentration of the product acid depends on the H2O/SO3 ratio in the catalytically converted gases and on the condensation temperature.[1] Cite error: The <ref> tag has too many names (see the help page).
The wet catalysis process is especially suitable for processing the wet gasses obtained by the combustion of hydrogen sulfide (H2S) containing off-gasses.[2] The combustion gasses are merely cooled to the converter inlet temperature of about 420-440 °C. To process these wet gasses in a conventional cold-gas contact process (DCDA) plant would necessitate cooling the gas to an economically unacceptable extent to remove the large excess of moisture. Therefore in many cases Wet catalysis processes is a more cost-efficient way of treating hydrogen sulfide containing off-gases.
The technology is able to treat one or more sulfur containing streams such as:
- H2S gas from amine gas treating unit
- SWS gas
- Spent acid
- Claus process tail gas
- Heavy residue or petcoke-fired utility boiler off-gas
- FCC regenerator
- Boiler flue gas
References
- ^ Sulphur recovery; (2007). The Process Principles, details advances in sulphur recovery by the WSA process.). Denmark: Jens Kristen Laursen, Haldor Topsøe A/S. Reprinted from Hydrocarbonengineering August 2007
- ^ Gary, J.H. and Handwerk, G.E. (1984). Petroleum Refining Technology and Economics (2nd Edition ed.). Marcel Dekker, Inc. ISBN 0824771508.
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