Tag: RATE

CRU Events will convene the 2023 Phosphates International Conference & Exhibition in Istanbul at the Hilton Bomonti Hotel, 27 February to 1 March.

Yara International is to supply fossil-free fertilizers to El Parque Papas, Argentina’s largest potato grower, in 2023.

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

Safety in sulphuric acid plants is a well-known and widely discussed topic. Industry turnover is a reality, and keeping new employees informed of hydrogen safety procedures is key to keeping plants fully operational and incident free. Walter Weiss of Elessent Clean Technologies discusses the steps facilities need to take to prevent hydrogen incidents.

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.

Almalyk Mining and Metallurgical Company (AMMC) has awarded Metso Outotec a euro 70 million order for the delivery of two sulphuric acid plants to be built for AMMC’s zinc roasting facility in Almalyk, Uzbekistan. Metso Outotec’s scope of delivery includes the design and delivery of Planet Positive equipment for two gas cleaning and sulphuric acid plants, which will process all off-gases from the zinc roasters into industrial-grade sulphuric acid. In addition, Metso Outotec will deliver utility facilities, such as a common cooling tower system and a common air compressor system.

Last year attention was drawn to the potential for large scale decarbonisation to leave the world short of the key resources of sulphur, and hence sulphuric acid. But is there a global sulphur shortage on the distant horizon?

The world has seen a number of hydrogen explosions in double absorption plants mostly in the intermediate absorption tower (IAT). To review this increase and to determine the causes, an International Hydrogen Safety Workgroup was formed including major acid plant contractors, major acid producers, and consultants in the sulphuric acid arena. Workgroup member Rick Davis of Davis & Associates Consulting explores some of the findings.

CO2 emission abatement strategies have become increasingly important as the world strives to combat global climate change. Mahin Rameshni and Stephen Santo of Rameshni & Associates Technology & Engineering (RATE USA) discuss carbon capture options available for sulphur recovery units.

Sulphur run-down lines are typically sized by referencing past projects and ‘rules of thumb’. Very little analysis is performed to identify the impacts of slope, fittings, valves, etc. It is critical to maintain an open vapour path from the condenser to the sealing device. CSI has observed problems in the field which appear to be caused by undersized run-down lines. CSI developed a method of predicting the liquid level in a run-down line that considers the most common elements. This was accomplished by building a full-scale model of a run-down line that evaluated pipe NPS, pipe slope, rod-out-cross elbows, rod-out cross elevation drops, and liquid viscosity. This article* presents the testing and development of the predictive method as well as the predictive method itself.