Tag: RATE

Sulphur dust is one of the greatest hazards when producing and handling solid sulphur, and methods for its suppression are vitally important to prevent fire and explosion.

Meena Chauhan, Head of Sulphur and Sulphuric Acid Research, Argus Media, assesses price trends and the market outlook for sulphur.

Kazakhstan’s oil and condensate output increased by 7% from 1.79 million bbl/d to 1.92 million bbl/d in early June after sour gas reinjection operations resumed at the Kashagan offshore oil and gas development following a recent outage, according to the Kazkah Energy Ministry. Reinjection of sour gas into two wells resumed on 8th June, enabling operator the North Caspian Operating Company (NCOC) to boost oil and condensate production at a large artificial island in Kazakhstan’s Caspian Sea waters. Reinjection was paused on May 20th following the detection of sour gas during routine sampling and a subsequent integrity test. Kashagan normally produces about 300,000 barrels of oil per day. Kazakhstan expects Kashsgan to raise oil production this year to 18.2 million t/a from 12.7 million t/a in 2022.

In 2019 Topsoe launched its ClearView™ technology for WSA and SNOx sulphuric acid plants. ClearView™ is a revolutionary process health monitoring software solution to help sulphuric acid plant operators ensure plants run better, more stable and with less downtime. Now, three years later, ClearView™ has been successfully implemented at two WSA plants and several other chemical plants of Topsoe’s design, with many others in the pipeline. This article focuses on the results and learnings from the first implementation of ClearView™ at a new WSA plant at Anglo American Platinum’s Polokwane smelter in South Africa.

Aged sulphur products can be friable and fragile, which can lead to sulphur dust during handling. Because sulphur dust can lead to dust explosions and excessive wet sulphur contact corrosion, shipping and handling specifications for the safest products are used by producers, shippers and consumers to limit dangerous incidents. Metastable polymeric sulphur in the solid product limits friability and is rarely cited as a measured quantity within sulphur specifications, but often discussed when explaining best handling and forming practices. In this article, ASRL discusses why sulphur tends to be friable and explores several measurements cited in many specification documents, with the purpose of focusing on several modern solid forms. In addition, the measurement of total and extraneous water is explored.

Pejman Djavdan , CEO of Stamicarbon looks at the ways in which the fertilizer industry must grapple with issues such as decarbonisation, sustainability and more efficient use of nutrients.

Johnson Matthey (JM) has signed an LCH™ technology licence with Equinor and Linde Engineering for H2H Saltend, one of the UK’s largest low carbon hydrogen projects. JM was selected alongside EPC partner Linde Engineering for the major FEED contract by Equinor. The licence counts towards JM’s milestone of winning more than ten additional large-scale projects by 2023/24.

Further downward corrections are possible but the rate of demand is stabilising, suggesting the market floor is in sight, though some have suggested that May could bring another sharp reduction in the Tampa contract price towards the mid$300s c.fr. Demand remains sluggish in both eastern and western hemispheres.

Advances in clean hydrogen and ammonia production is fuelling worldwide interest in a new market for hydrogen and ammonia to provide a reliable low-carbon energy future. Ammonia cracking, the dissociation of ammonia back into hydrogen, delivers a pathway to large-scale sustainable hydrogen production. In this article KBR, Johnson Matthey, thyssenkrupp Uhde, Duiker, Proton Ventures and Casale report on their technologies and approaches to ammonia cracking in a low carbon economy.

With the market for green ammonia set to grow significantly in the coming years, modularisation of ammonia plants can bring many benefits to new projects, including optimised cost, speed of delivery and reducing overall risks. thyssenkrupp Uhde is committed to further develop standardised, modular solutions for its clients. Tobias Birwe and Dustin Mayor explain the company’s modularisation concept.