Method and apparatus for melting and recovering sulfur in aqueous slurries

Method for separating and recovering sulfur from a slurry thereof in an aqueous liquid comprising the steps of:

• passing said slurry downwardly through a shell-and-tube heat exchanger having vertical tubes, to heat said slurry sufficiently to melt the sulfur contained therein;
• discharging a mixture of aqueous liquid and molten sulfur emerging from said heat exchanger directly into a first separation zone below said heat exchanger;
• permitting said mixture to separate in said separation zone by gravity into two liquid phases consisting of a lower molten sulfur phase and an upper aqueous phase;
• conveying said aqueous phase into a second separation zone at a intermediate point in its elevation;
• conveying said molten sulfur phase into said second separation zone at a point adjacent its lower end;
• maintaining in said second separation zone an interface between an upper aqueous phase and a lower molten sulfur phase at a level below the inlet of said aqueous phase into said second separation zone;
• discharging from the lower end of said second separation zone a stream of molten sulfur;
• and
• discharging from an upper end of said second separation zone a stream of aqueous liquid.