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US 11,655,149 B1Granted
Sulfur recovery by solidifying sulfur on reactor catalyst
AssigneeSaudi Arabian Oil Company
InventorJohn O'Connell
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A system and method including a sulfur recovery system (SRU) having a Claus system, reacting hydrogen sulfide and oxygen in a furnace to give sulfur dioxide, performing a Claus reaction in the furnace to give elemental sulfur, performing the Claus reaction in a Claus reactor to give elemental sulfur at a temperature greater than a dew point of the elemental sulfur, performing the Claus reaction in a Claus cycling reactor to give elemental sulfur at a temperature less than a solidification temperature of the elemental sulfur, depositing the elemental sulfur as solid elemental sulfur on catalyst in the Claus cycling reactor, and regenerating (heating) the Claus cycling reactor thereby forming elemental sulfur vapor from the solid elemental sulfur.
Claims24
A method of operating a sulfur recovery system (SRU) comprising a Claus system, the method comprising:
- reacting hydrogen sulfide and oxygen in a furnace to give sulfur dioxide, and performing a Claus reaction comprising reacting hydrogen sulfide and sulfur dioxide in the furnace to give elemental sulfur;
- performing the Claus reaction comprising reacting hydrogen sulfide and sulfur dioxide from the furnace in a Claus reactor to give elemental sulfur at a temperature greater than a dew point of the elemental sulfur in the Claus reactor, the Claus reactor comprising a first catalyst to promote the Claus reaction;
- performing the Claus reaction comprising reacting hydrogen sulfide and sulfur dioxide from the Claus reactor in a Claus cycling reactor to give elemental sulfur at a temperature less than a solidification temperature of the elemental sulfur, the Claus cycling reactor comprising a second catalyst to promote the Claus reaction;
- depositing the elemental sulfur as solid elemental sulfur on the second catalyst in the Claus cycling reactor;
- and
- regenerating the Claus cycling reactor, the regenerating comprising heating the Claus cycling reactor, thereby forming elemental sulfur vapor from the solid elemental sulfur, and discharging the elemental sulfur vapor from the Claus cycling reactor, wherein the Claus system comprises multiple Claus cycling reactors that operate in a cycle sequence with respect to each other, the multiple Claus cycling reactors comprising the Claus cycling reactor, wherein the multiple Claus cycling reactors each comprise the second catalyst, and wherein the first catalyst is different from the second catalyst.
3 more elements
A method of operating a sulfur recovery system (SRU) comprising a Claus system, the method comprising:
- providing hydrogen sulfide and sulfur dioxide from a thermal stage to a Claus reactor, the thermal stage comprising a reaction furnace, a waste heat boiler, and a condenser heat exchanger;
- reacting the hydrogen sulfide and the sulfur dioxide in the Claus reactor at a temperature greater than a dew point of sulfur to give sulfur vapor, the Claus reactor having catalyst to perform a Claus reaction;
- reacting hydrogen sulfide and sulfur dioxide in multiple Claus cycling reactors downstream of the Claus reactor at a temperature lower than a solidification of sulfur to give solid sulfur in the multiple Claus cycling reactors, wherein the multiple Claus cycling reactor each have a catalyst to perform the Claus reaction;
- heating the multiple Claus cycling reactors, thereby forming sulfur vapor from the solid sulfur;
- and
- discharging the sulfur vapor from the multiple Claus cycling reactors and condensing the sulfur vapor.
3 more elements
A sulfur recovery system (SRU) comprising a Claus system comprising:
- a thermal stage comprising:
- a reaction furnace to convert hydrogen sulfide into sulfur dioxide and elemental sulfur;
- and
- a waste heat boiler to recover heat from a combustion product discharged from the reaction furnace, the combustion product comprising a process stream comprising hydrogen sulfide, sulfur dioxide, and elemental sulfur;
- a Claus reactor stage comprising a Claus reactor having a first catalyst to convert hydrogen sulfide and sulfur dioxide received from the thermal stage into elemental sulfur at a temperature above a dew point of the elemental sulfur;
- and
- Claus cycling reactors downstream of the Claus reactor stage, the Claus cycling reactors each having a second catalyst to convert hydrogen sulfide and sulfur dioxide into elemental sulfur at a temperature below a solidification temperature of the elemental sulfur to solidify the elemental sulfur as solid elemental sulfur on the second catalyst, wherein the Claus cycling reactors each comprise an internal heat exchanger to cool the Claus cycling reactors, respectively, to below the solidification temperature of the elemental sulfur.
4 more elements
A sulfur recovery system (SRU) comprising a Claus system comprising:
- a thermal stage comprising a reaction furnace to convert hydrogen sulfide into sulfur dioxide and elemental sulfur, a waste heat boiler to recover heat from an exhaust of the reaction furnace, and a first condenser heat exchanger to condense elemental sulfur in the exhaust and discharge hydrogen sulfide and sulfur dioxide from the exhaust to a Claus reactor;
- the Claus reactor having a first catalyst to convert hydrogen sulfide and sulfur dioxide received from the thermal stage into elemental sulfur at a temperature above a dew point of the elemental sulfur and discharge a process stream comprising hydrogen sulfide, sulfur dioxide, and elemental sulfur to a second condenser heat exchanger;
- the second condenser heat exchanger to condense elemental sulfur in the process stream and discharge hydrogen sulfide and sulfur dioxide to a first Claus cycling reactor of multiple Claus cycling reactors;
- and
- the multiple Claus cycling reactors each having a second catalyst to convert hydrogen sulfide and sulfur dioxide into elemental sulfur at a temperature below a solidification temperature of the elemental sulfur and deposit the elemental sulfur as solid elemental sulfur on the second catalyst, wherein each of the multiple Claus cycling reactors comprises an internal heat exchanger to cool the second catalyst to below the solidification temperature of sulfur.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.