Elessent Clean Technologies, the world leader in air- pollution control systems for refinery solutions, has worked on over 200 refinery air pollution control projects. More than 30 of these projects have been for sulfur recovery unit (SRU) tail gas scrubbing applications. As robustness, flexibility and reliability are key to refinery operations, we recommend the DynaWave® wet scrubbing technology for SRU applications. As a holistic scrubbing supplier, Elessent Clean Technologies provides BELCO® wet scrubbing technology, the global standard for controlling refinery flue gas emissions from fluidized catalytic cracking units (FCCUs), fluid cokers, fired heaters and boilers.
Oil refineries, natural gas processing units and coal gasification and other chemical plants use the Claus process to recover elemental sulfur from H-2-S containing gas streams. This Claus plant is often called the sulfur recovery unit, the SRU unit or the sulfur plant. An optimized Claus plant can achieve sulfur recovery of up to 98.5%. This leaves about 1.5% or more of the sulfur species in the tail gas.
Typically, in order to comply with local environmental regulations, a tail gas treatment (TGT) process, will be installed downstream of the SRU to take care of the remaining sulfur before it is all incinerated to SO2 and vented to the atmosphere. There are various types of TGT processes including as amine-based processes, sub-dew point processes or oxygen-enriched processes. They all have different ways of operating, different efficiencies, different investment costs and different plot space requirements.
No matter which TGT process is chosen, for ultimate reliability – when one of these units is in startup, shutdown or malfunctioning (SSM) mode – a DynaWave® wet gas scrubber just before the stack can guarantee emissions compliance at all times. This small add-on unit will guarantee SO2 emissions below the required limits without having to shut down the plant when the SRU and/or TGT are down and bypassed.
The unique flexibility of the DynaWave® technology offers ultimate reliability and guarantees low SO2 stack emissions, regardless whether the upstream units (Claus and/or TGT) are in upset conditions or not. In addition, the same unit makes it possible to achieve ultra-low emission levels during normal operating conditions. The low CAPEX investment, along with the outstanding operational comfort and increased overall reliability, results in an optimized Claus tail gas treatment configuration. As such, the DynaWave® technology allows for significant capital cost savings in the main TGT process selection, with reduced equipment, smaller footprint and significantly less complexity than a typical amine-based TGTU setup.
Features & Benefits
Further details can be found in the DynaWave® reverse jet scrubber for SRU brochure.
Find out how Taiwanese state-owned refining corporation CPC improved SO2 removal with DynaWave® technology and PETRONAS, the Malaysian National Oil Company, used DynaWave® technology for effective sulfur dioxide removal. Other adopters of DynaWave® technology include Dangote Oil Refinery Company Ltd, Eni and the Taoyuan refinery in Taiwan.