Sulphur Industry News

UNITED STATES

Ioneer signs sulphur supply contract with Shell

Lithium miner Ioneer Ltd has signed a non-binding Memorandum of Understanding with Shell Canada Energy for the supply of sulphur to Ioneer for its Rhyolite Ridge lithium-boron project in Esmeralda County, Nevada. Ionner said in a statement that “securing the supply of key reagents for ore processing is an important step along the critical pathway to developing the Rhyolite Ridge project”. Under the memorandum, Ioneer will purchase up to 500,000 t/a of high-quality sulphur from Shell, which would fulfil the estimated annual sulphur requirement for the Project.

The signing of the MoU builds upon the letter of intent signed in December 2019 and, with a binding commitment to negotiate exclusively with one another, it is the intention of both parties to advance the MoU into a definitive agreement at the appropriate time. Ioneer and Shell say that they also intend to collaborate through strategic initiatives focused on accelerating the energy transition.

Ioneer’s Managing Director, Bernard Rowe, said: “Sulphur is a primary input for our process as it will be converted into the sulphuric acid required for leaching the ore as well as releasing heat which is recovered to produce carbon free power and steam for the facility. Shell is an ideal partner for this effort, and we look forward to furthering our partnership together on additional decarbonisation solutions while providing materials for a sustainable future.”

Peter Zissos, GM Global Sulphur & Thiogro from Shell, added: “We are excited to expand our partnership with Ioneer to include the sale of sulphur while collaborating on various decarbonisation solutions. Sulphur’s second largest use is for mining, including for the extraction of EV metals like lithium. With safe and reliable delivery of sulphur to customers like Ioneer, Shell Sulphur Solutions is delivering inputs critical for renewable energy production and management.”

Increase in sulphur fertilizer use

A recent paper in Communications Earth & Environment (Hinckley, EL.S., Driscoll, C.T., Sulphur fertiliser use in the Midwestern US increases as atmospheric sulphur deposition declines with improved air quality. Commun Earth Environ 3, 324, 2022) compares the rate of sulphur fertilizer use across 12 Midwestern states with falling rates of atmospheric deposition of sulphur. Using data from the US National Atmospheric Deposition Program, it found that the rate of sulphur deposition on cropland fell from 4.7 kg/ha to 1.1 kg/ha from 1987 to 2017 as sulphur was progressively removed from vehicle fuels and sulphur dioxide scrubbed from power plant emissions in order to tackle acid rain and improve public health. At the same time, compiled fertiliser sales data from the Association of American Plant Food Control Officials showed that use of sulphur containing fertilizers increased from 0.1 kgS/ha in 1985 to 4.9 kgS/ha in 2015, replacing almost completely all of the ‘free’ sulphur lost.

The paper concludes that, with air quality regulation and high agricultural productivity continuing as priorities not only in the US, but also in many parts of the world, the pressure to add S fertilisers will continue to increase.

SAUDI ARABIA

Contract tenders expected soon for Jafurah Phase 2

Saudi Aramco is reportedly in talks with potential equity investors for the $110 billion Jafurah shale gas project in Saudi Arabia’s eastern province. Jafurah sprawls across 17,000 km 2 , and is estimated to hold up to 200 tcf (5,660 bcm) of gas. The company has already awarded subsurface and engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contracts for the Jafurah Gas Plant and gas compression facilities, as well as infrastructure and related surface facilities worth $10 billion. Invitations to bid for phase 2 of the project, including packages worth up to $6 billion each, have already gone out, and tenders are expected soon. Overall, capital expenditure at Jafurah is expected to reach $68 billion over the first 10 years of development. Gas production is expected to begin in 2025 at around 200 million cfd, rising to ten times that (2 bcf/d) by 2030, alongside 4.3 bcm per year of ethane and 630,000 bbl/d of gas liquids and condensates.

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

More sulphur from ADNOC this year

Samsung Engineering is carrying out ADNOC’s Refining Crude Flexibility Project at Ruwais, and expects to complete work this year. The $3.5 billion project will add new facilities and renovate existing ones, including the addition of an Upper Zakum crude refining facility to the Ruwais Refinery West plant in the complex. The refinery was designed to refine 420,000 bbl/d of Murban onshore crude. Taking crude additionally from the offshore heavier and sourer Upper Zakum field will necessitate additional sulphur recovery capacity. Samsung says that the new SRU and tail gas treating unit will have the capacity to process 800 t/d of sulphur (264,000 t/a).

ADNOC forms new gas processing and marketing company

ADNOC has announced the formation of ADNOC Gas, effective from 1st January 2023, its new world-scale gas processing, operations and marketing company. The company combines the operations, maintenance and marketing of the ADNOC Gas Processing and ADNOC LNG businesses into one global and market-leading consolidated business, according to the company. It argues that as ADNOC grows its gas production and processing capacity, the combined scale and capabilities of ADNOC Gas will maximise value and create new opportunities for ADNOC, its partners and the UAE. As a leading global player with capacity of around 10 billion scf/d, ADNOC Gas will serve a wider range of domestic and international customers with an expanding portfolio of gas products.

His Excellency Dr. Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, UAE Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology and ADNOC Managing Director and Group CEO, said: “The formation of ADNOC Gas represents another major milestone in unlocking the full value of the UAE’s vast natural gas resources and builds on ADNOC’s more than 40 years’ experience as a leading gas producer. Natural gas will be a critical fuel in the energy transition and ADNOC Gas, through its world-scale operations and significant growth and expansion plans, will be well-positioned to meet both local and international gas demand. In addition to enabling the growth of local industry and manufacturing, ADNOC Gas will play a critical role in delivering ADNOC’s broader LNG expansion plans, including in international markets.

“For our customers, ADNOC Gas will continue to be a reliable provider of LNG, LPG and associated products. Led by a seasoned and highly-qualified senior management team, with unrivalled experience in the sector, this new flagship and world-scale company will strengthen our position as a responsible and sustainable energy leader in an evolving global energy landscape,” H.E. Dr Al Jaber added.

Ahmed Mohamed Alebri has been appointed as Chief Executive Officer (Acting) of ADNOC Gas, Peter Van Driel as Chief Financial Officer, and Mohamed Al Hashemi as Chief Operating Officer. Ahmed Mohamed Alebri is the former CEO (Acting) of ADNOC Gas Processing and General Manager (Acting) of ADNOC Industrial Gases. With an ADNOC career spanning more than 18 years, he has held various senior management positions and has led the delivery of multi-billion dollar gas expansion programs. Peter Van Driel is a 28-year veteran of Shell, where he served in various key roles in Accounting, Investor Relations, M&A and Finance and Mohamed Al Hashemi is the former SVP of Production Planning & Transmission at ADNOC Gas Processing, where he previously held several leadership posts covering the full spectrum of Site Operations, Maintenance and Supply with an emphasis on HSE & Asset Integrity.

As one the world’s leading gas companies, ADNOC Gas will operate eight processing sites both onshore and offshore with a pipeline network of over 3,250 km. As announced in November 2022, ADNOC also intends to proceed with an initial public offering (IPO) of a minority stake in ADNOC Gas on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX) during the course of 2023, subject to applicable regulatory approvals. The company will make further announcement in relation to the intended IPO in due course. Existing joint venture partners to ADNOC LNG (Mitsui & Co, bp and TotalEnergies) and ADNOC Gas Processing (Shell, TotalEnergies and PTTEP) will continue in their respective JV partnerships with ADNOC Gas, ADNOC said.

Tecnimont JV awarded preliminary Hail/Ghasha contract

Tecnimont SpA says it has been awarded a contract from ADNOC for the early engineering and procurement works related to the onshore facilities of the Hail & Ghasha Development Project, as part of a joint venture composed of Tecnimont, Technip Energies and Samsung Engineering. The overall contract value is approximately $80 million. The scope of work also includes the preparation of an open book estimate for the full project delivery scope, which will be considered as part of the final investment decision.

Alessandro Bernini, Maire Tecnimont Group CEO, commented: “We are honoured to keep on supporting ADNOC in accelerating its gas growth plans.”

BAHRAIN

BAPCO modernisation program to start up this year

The Bahrain Petroleum Company (BAPCO) is aiming to complete its $6 billion refinery modernisation programme this year. It will boost the processing capacity of the country’s only oil refinery to 360,000 bbl/d from its current 267,000 bbl/d by updating aging facilities. The upgrade includes a third sulphur plant; a sulphur recovery, amine and sour water treating facility being built as part of the modernisation programme, and will comprise 11 separate integrated process units. The plant’s main purpose is to recover hydrogen sulphide from the new units’ process streams and convert it into liquid sulphur. The liquid sulphur is then converted into solid pastilles in a separate unit, with the final product exported to other countries. Parsons is the technology licensor for the three sulphur recovery units (SRUs), two tail gas treating units (TGTUs), two bulk acid gas removal units, two amine regeneration units (ARUs) and two sour water stripping units (SWSs). The new SRUs will add 750 t/d of sulphur capacity, leading to post-modernisation refinery total sulphur production installed capacity of 1,535 t/d (500,000 t/a). The new block is located adjacent to the existing Low Sulphur Diesel Production Complex SRUs. Technology and unit configuration is similar to the existing SRUs, including a two-stage Claus process followed by tail gas treatment, giving 99.9% recovery of H2 S. However, the new SRUs will use an air sweep for degassing of the sulphur rather than a chemical dosing system, and will have a more energy-efficient incinerator which uses heat recovery with steam generation.

OBITUARY

John A. MacDonald, Director, Sulphuric Group Inc.

PHOTO: LOREE MACDONALD

Les Lang writes: John Alexander Colin Grant MacDonald, 74, passed away on July 19th, 2022, at home, following a yearlong battle with cancer. John came to the sulphur industry in 2000 after a lengthy career in senior roles in the Canadian trucking and railroad industry. As the Sales Manager for Enersul he led the negotiations that realised new long-term plant operating agreements for four of Enersul’s Alberta facilities and replacing old forming processes with the new GXm2 granulators.

Assuming overall management of Enersul’s international technology marketing group in 2003, John led the technical and marketing team in a succession of major sulphur forming and handling contract wins in Russia and Qatar. As one of the founding shareholders of The Brimrock Group Inc., John worked with fellow director Les Lang to bring a number of new sulphur processing technologies to the marketplace. Those new technologies will be an on-going legacy in the sulphur industry for many years to come.

In 2014, IPCO purchased the patented technologies developed by Brimrock, which led to the founding of the Sulphuric Group Inc., where John remained a director and founding shareholder until the time of his passing. John’s wife Loree has assumed his director’s responsibilities going forward. John will be dearly missed by those whose lives and careers were touched by his knowledge, excitement and love of the deal.

INDIA

New SRU for Numaligarh refinery

Thermax has secured an engineering, procurement and construction contract worth $150 million from an Indian public sector refinery to build a new sulphur recovery block on a lump sum turnkey basis. The Numaligarh refinery is 80% owned by Oil India Ltd, 15.5% by the government of Assam state, and 4.5% Engineers India Ltd (EIL). The sulphur recovery block will includes two 240 t/d sulphur recovery units along with a tail gas treatment unit, a 690 t/h amine regeneration unit, a 200 t/h phenolic sour water stripper and a 95 t/h non-phenlic sour water stripper, and forms part of Numaligarh’s ongoing refinery expansion project. The project forms part of the government of India’s North East Hydrocarbon Vision 2030.

Thermax’s scope of supply includes project management, engineering, procurement, manufacturing, construction, and commissioning of the sulphur recovery block. The project is slated to be completed in 28 months. The company had previously supplied waste heat recovery boilers for the old SRU block at Numaligarh.

In a separate development, Engineers India has also signed a memorandum of understanding with the Numaligarh refinery to jointly develop technology for production of ammonia from ammonia-rich sour gases. The MoU paves the way for the demonstration of technologies jointly developed by EIL and the refinery.

UNITED KINGDOM

Lithium sulphur battery market could see 30% annual growth

A recent report by The Business Research Company: “Lithium Sulphur Batteries Global Market Report 2022”, predicts that the market will reach a value of $0.43 billion in 2022 and grow to $1.18 billion in 2026 at a compound annual growth rate of 29.0%. Rising government investment in electric vehicles is significantly driving the growth of the lithium-sulphur batteries market. Major companies operating in the sector are focused on developing new technological solutions to accelerate growth in the market. For instance, in September 2021, Lyten, a US-based advanced materials company, launched lithium-sulphur battery LytCell EV for electric vehicles. Lyten Sulphur Caging is a technology employed in LytCell batteries to unlock the performance ability of sulphur by preventing the ‘polysulphide shuttle’, a cycle-life limiting issue that has prohibited practical Li-S application in battery electric vehicles up to now. This recent innovation is intended to produce three times the gravimetric energy density of traditional lithium-ion batteries and is being developed exclusively for the electric vehicle (EV) sector.

OMAN

Duqm Refinery nearing completion

Construction work was assessed as 96% complete at Oman’s new $6 billion Duqm refinery at the end of November 2022. The refinery project, a joint venture between the OQ Group and Kuwait Petroleum International, is being implemented in the Special Economic Zone at Duqm as part of a wider plan to turn the port into one of the largest industrial and economic centres in the region. It includes 10 main processing units capable of producing diesel, aviation fuel, naphtha, liquefied petroleum gas, sulphur and petroleum coke. Crude refining capacity will be 230,000 bbl/d, almost doubling Oman’s refining capacity. Around 65% of the crude feedstock for the refinery will be imported from Kuwait, while the remaining 35% will be supplied by Oman.

PANAMA

Topsoe technology selected for renewable fuels production

SGP BioEnergy is aiming to build South America’s largest renewable fuels plant, with two units in Colon and Balboa, Panama to produce sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and renewable diesel (RD), respectively. The company has chosen Topsoe HydroFlex™ technology to produce SAF and RD, while also deploying its H2bridge™ technology to ensure the plant has a net-zero greenhouse gas footprint, recycling green hydrogen generated by waste carbon and production by-product back into the plant’s operations. Once fully operational, the biorefinery will produce 180,000 bbl/d of SAF and RD, and 405,000 t/a of green hydrogen. Construction is on schedule for first production by 2025.

Henrik Rasmussen, Managing Director, The Americas, Topsoe, said: “This is truly an amazing project, and we are proud to work with SGP BioEnergy to bring it to life. We are excited to support the production of low-carbon fuels with our proven technologies for what will be the largest renewable fuels plant in South America, while also facilitating the net-zero operations of the biorefinery. It is a true model for a low-carbon energy future.”

Renewable diesel is made from waste or recycled animal fats, e.g. from restaurants, as well as inedible corn and soybean oil. These materials, that would otherwise be thrown away, are converted into diesel, producing a much cleaner alternative to regular diesel. HydroFlex™ can convert low value feedstocks into drop-in renewable jet and diesel that meets globally accepted specifications for these fuels, while H2bridge™ technology captures waste propane and carbon off-gas from the refining process, and converts it into green hydrogen to be included in powering facility operations.