15
Catalyst
to Improve Small-Scale Claus Plants--TDA
Research, Inc., 12345 West 52nd Avenue, Wheat Ridge, CO
80033-1917; 303-940-2300, www.tda.com
Dr.
Girish Srinivas, Principal Investigator, srinivas@tda.com
Mr.
John D. Wright, Business Official, jdwright@tda.com
DOE
Grant No. DE-FG02-03ER83854
Amount:
$750,000
Although
the Claus process is the dominant process for recovering sulfur from natural
gas, sulfur conversion is limited by equilibrium, and two or three Claus stages
are needed to recover most of it. In
addition, expensive tail-gas treatment processes are needed to bring large Claus
plants under environmental compliance. This
project will develop a novel catalyst that provides a higher conversion of
sulfur compounds in the Claus reactor. The
use of this catalyst would decrease emissions of sulfur compounds in Claus
processes, significantly reducing the amount of investment and operating funds
needed for gas processors to meet their emissions requirements.
Phase I synthesized and tested a series of catalysts that resulted in an
improvement in the conversion of sulfur compounds in the Claus reactor.
A detailed process and economic analysis was conducted to determine the
benefits of the technology to the gas industry.
Phase II will continue testing promising catalysts, and the most
promising will be selected for long term testing to determine the stability of
the catalyts. A bench-scale unit
will be designed and fabricated, and the catalyst will be tested using a
slip-stream from a Claus plant in
Commercial Applications and Other
Benefits
as described by awardee: The
increased recovery efficiency from the use of the new catalyst should benefit
existing Claus plants and eliminate the need to install costly tail-gas cleanup
technology. The improved catalyst
should also find use in new grass roots Claus plant installations.