Sulphur Plants, The Seven Deadly Sins
Tighter emissions and heavier, more sour, crude processing and more sour gas is putting pressure on refineries and gas plants to ensure high availability and optimum performance of the Claus Sulphur Recovery Units. This paper attempts to reduce the topic of sulphur plant optimization down to its basics. Viewed in this way, it can be seen that there are only seven key items that can reduce sulphur plant efficiency, the Seven Deadly Sins of Sulphur Recovery. Each of these seven sins is analyzed in detail, providing some indication of typical losses in each case based on test results obtained by Sulphur Experts. Additionally, “worst case” examples from Sulphur Experts’ files showing the potential for efficiency losses in each of these cases are also presented. This paper can be used as a simple checklist by sulphur plant operators and engineers to determine the potential for efficiency losses in their own facilities, and conversely the potential for optimization of recovery efficiency.