Development of an Online Soft Analyzer for the Continuous Analysis of BTEX Emissions from the Furnace of Sulfur Recovery Units

The oxidation of Benzene, Toluene, Ethylbenzene, and Xylenes (BTEX) in the furnace of SRUs at high temperature is an effective solution to prevent Claus catalyst deactivation in the downstream catalytic converters. However, the existing SRUs do not have the means to monitor BTEX emissions from Claus furnace due to lack of commercial online analyzers in the market. This often leads to excessive temperatures up to 1150 °C in the furnace to ensure BTEX destruction. Such high temperatures increase fuel gas consumption and CO emission and reduce sulfur recovery efficiency. To obtain continuous BTEX indication at the furnace exit, an online BTEX soft sensor model is developed to predict BTEX concentration at furnace exit. Subsequently, this soft sensor will be implemented in one of the SRUs of ADNOC Gas Processing. The BTEX soft sensor has been developed by constructing a compact kinetic model for aromatics destruction in the furnace based on the understanding of BTEX oxidation mechanisms derived using a detailed and well validated kinetic model developed previously. The kinetic model, including its rate parameters were incorporated into Hysys/Sulsim software, where both the reaction furnace and catalytic converters were simulated. The BTEX soft sensor has been validated with plant data from different ADNOC Gas Processing SRU trains under a wide range of feed conditions (particularly, with varying relative concentrations of H2S, CO2, and hydrocarbons in acid gas feed) in order to ensure its robustness and versatile predictive accuracy. The model predicts BTEX emissions from the reaction furnace under a wide range of operating conditions in the furnace with deviation not exceeding +/- 5 ppm. It also predicts the reaction furnace temperature (with a deviation of +/- 5%) and species composition from the furnace exit within a reasonable error margin. Presently, the model is in the process of being deployed in one of the SRUs of ADNO Gas Processing as an online soft sensor, where it can read the feed conditions, predict the BTEX exit concentration and write this value to the DCS. Thus, plant operators can monitor BTEX exit concentration on continuous basis and use it as a reliable basis to lower fuel gas co-firing rate in the furnace to achieve optimum furnace temperature that provide efficient BTEX destruction and low CO emission. The online soft analyzer, when deployed in SRU, will continuously predict BTEX emission from SRU furnace with high accuracy, which cannot be done experimentally in the plant or reliably using most of the existing commercial software. This approach can be used to seek favorable means of optimizing BTEX destruction to enhance sulfur recovery, while decreasing fuel gas consumption and carbon footprint in sulfur recovery units to reduce operating cost.

Investigating efficiency improvement in sulfur recovery unit using process simulation and numerical modeling

Hydrogen sulfide exists mostly as a detrimental byproduct in the gas processing units as well as refineries, and it must be eliminated from natural gas streams. In a Sulfur Recovery Unit (SRU), hydrogen sulfide is converted into the elemental sulfur during the modified Claus process. Efficiency of sulfur recovery units significantly depends on the reaction furnace temperature. In this work, the effect of oxygen and acid gas enrichment on the reaction furnace temperature and accordingly on sulfur recovery is studied, using both numerical modeling and process simulation. Then, simulation and numerical model are benchmarked against the experimental data of an SRU unit. The validated model provides spotlight on optimizing the upstream sulfur removal unit as well as the oxygen purification process. Two cases of acid gas streams with low and high H2S content, 30% and 50%, are studied to investigate the effect of operating parameters on the overall recovery. Finally, average errors of the models are presented. According to the absolute difference with experimental values, the developed numerical model shows great potential for accurately estimating overall efficiency of the recovery unit.

Kinetic Reactions Modeling and Optimization of Claus Process

There are many pollution and environment problem in the human ecosystem. There are different methods are used to removal of sulfur from sour gases for example Basic Claus process and Modified Claus process . There are different chemical software are used for simulation and optimization of Claus process for example Aspen Plus and Chemcad ECT. The Gibbs free energy method is introduced and model of Claus process. There are new parameter are introduced in reaction furnace to reduce the error from 33% to 7 %. The waste heat boiler is installed at the reaction furnace in which high pressure stream is produced and study the decomposition the hydrogen sulphide. The new rate of reaction is introduced of the enhancement of H2 production in chemical process. The simulation of reaction furnace in Aspen plus software is the maximum utilization of process. Due to suitable operating condition of reaction furnace is caused the maximum destruction of ammonia gas in the reactor. When we are increasing the oxygen concentration and temperature of feed is causing decreasing the ammonia production in reaction furnace. It is below than acceptance value of ammonia is 150 ppm in the reaction furnace. The presence of oxygen components, Sulfur oxide, hydroxide components are effect on decreasing the amount of ammonia in furnace and temperature is about at 1350⁰C. It is noted that when the production of sulfur recovery is decrease in Claus process and the production of carbon monoxide is increase in the thermal section at the existence. Now we are work on parametric studies of furnace that could be causes the production of ammonia destruction and CO emission in the Claus process. Due to optimize the reaction furnace parameter are help to get large of sulfur production, ammonia gas destruction, increased the catalyst life and decreased of dangerous gases.

Regularities of Changes in the Mechanical Characteristics and Electrical Properties of the Reaction Furnaces Coils Material during Operation

The main causes of early failure of reaction furnaces coils are diffusion processes in the material as a result of which structural changes occur, new phases are formed and void structure is formed in the surface layers of the metal, which has a negative effect on the mechanical characteristics. In this regard as a structurally sensitive method, which allows evaluating the changes occurring in the metal, the response parameters of the electrical signal are used which are sensitive to pore formation and allow predicting the zone of formation of the breaking crack. Fragments of the coils of the reaction furnaces from the radiant section, which were in operation for 750, 1300, 8000, and 10000 hours and the pipe element in the delivery condition were chosen as the objects of the study. As a result of the research a correlation between the amplitude of the first harmonic of the electrical signal output voltage with the results of static tests for tensile and impact bending was established. This happens due to the fact that during operation there is an increase in the relative impact viscosity and relative tensile strength, and the relative magnitude of the voltage amplitude of the first harmonic of the output electrical signal also increases. These results can be used as a method of mechanical properties assessment by non-destructive testing, and also they can be used to develop a criterion for the rejection of reaction furnace coils.

Distribution of Magnetic Field Parameters in the Surface Layer of the Material of Reaction Furnace Coils after Operation Period

One of the main reasons for the limited service life period of the reaction furnace coils is the carburization of the surface layers, which leads to a decrease in the performance characteristics of the pipe material, decrease in plasticity, generation of internal stresses, change in the metal structure. Therefore, monitoring the state of coils surface in order to detect critical parameters of the carburized layer thickness, using non-destructive methods of control is relevant. The results of the distribution of magnetic parameters over the depth of the carburized layer in the fragments of pipes made of steel 20Х25Н20C2, operated under furnace conditions at high temperatures, for 1300, 6000, 8000, 10000 hours are presented in the article. Analysis of the results showed that the magnetic properties are manifested only in the surface layers of the reaction furnace tubes. At the same time, the longer the service life period, the deeper is the layer exercising the magnetic properties and the higher in this layer the values ​of the constant magnetic field intensity. Analysis of magnetic properties distribution in all studied pipe fragments, both from the inner and from the outer side, showed the non-uniformity of the constant magnetic field intensity distribution, while zones of extremely high values ​are observed. The layer-by-layer surface removal in these zones with the determination of the resultant constant magnetic field intensity showed that there are critical values of the carburization depth, after which a sharp increase of this parameter is registered. These results can be used as a method for carburization depth determination, and also used to develop criterion for rejecting coils of reaction furnaces.

Investigating Three Different Models for Simulation of the Thermal Stage of an Industrial Split-Flow SRU Based on Equilibrium-Kinetic Approach with Heat Loss

Modified Claus process is the most important process that recovers elemental sulfur from H2S. The thermal stage of sulfur recovery unit (SRU), including the reaction furnace (RF) and waste heat boiler (WHB), plays a critically important role in sulfur recovery percentage of the unit. In this article, three methods including kinetic (PFR model), equilibrium and equilibrium-kinetic models have been investigated in order to predict the reaction furnace effluent conditions. The comparison of results with industrial data shows that kinetic model (for whole the thermal stage) is the most accurate model for simulation of the thermal stage of the industrial split-flow SRU. Mean absolute percentage error for the considered kinetic model is 4.59 %. For the first time, the consequences of considering heat loss from the reaction furnace on calculated molar flows are studied. The results show that considering heat loss only affects better prediction of some effluent molar flow rates such as CO and SO2, and its effect is not significant on the results. Eventually the effects of feed preheating on some important parameters like sulfur conversion efficiency, H2S to SO2 molar ratio and important effluent molar flows are investigated. The results indicate that feed preheating will reduce the sulfur conversion efficiency. It is also noticeable that by reducing the feed temperature to 490 K, H2S/SO2 molar ratio reaches to its optimum value of 2.