Claus process : sulfur recovery from hydrogen sulfide

Abstract

Natural gas is the basis of energy, which is essentially used as a manufacturing, marketable, and domestic fuel. To make the natural gas a suitable one, it is necessary to purify it from all impurities such as hydrogen sulfide. In order to recover all the impurities from the natural gas especially sulfur Claus Process is needed. The Claus process recovery unit is divided into two major sections: Conversion of H2S to sulfur component using thermal energy and formation of sulfur by use of Claus alumina catalyst at low temperature. In this study, a detailed explanation has been made on all the aspects related to Claus Process. Different types of Claus Process, design of the sulfur recovery unit, kinetics modeling in the furnace and catalytic reactor, and preparation of catalyst used in Claus Industrial Process has been clarified in this study. Al2O3 catalyst has been used in the Claus Process. This catalyst has undergone the N2 sorption and the XRD tests to measure the surface area, pores size and crystallinity of the catalyst. The results show, the catalyst is a mesoporous material having BET surface area of 271.875 m2 /g. This catalyst is characterized with large surface area and pore diameter of almost 8 nm. This indicates a well-defined catalyst.