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WSA Technology: a competitive solution for sulfur management

Presented By

Jose Revilla - Haldor Topsoe

Conference:

courtesy of Haldor TopsoeFor more than 30 years Haldor Topsoe has designed plants for purification of sulfur containing waste gases derived from a wide variety of process industries.

The WSA (Wet gas Sulfuric Acid) Technology for handling sulfur gases in a refinery is significantly different from those offered by other companies. While competing technologies produce elemental sulfur, the WSA process recovers sulfur from H2S or other sulfur compounds in the form of commercial grade sulfuric acid. The end product can be used in the alkylation unit or sold to fertilizer and metallurgical industries. Furthermore, our process is flexible and can process other refinery waste streams like SWS gas, Claus tail gas and spent alkylation acid, offering an integrated solution for sulfur management.

The WSA technology is also characterized by high sulfur removal efficiency with more than 99% sulfur recovery, up to 99.99% when required, and is always in compliance with emission legislation. The process does not consume any chemicals nor will there be any solid or liquid effluents requiring additional treatment. This in combination with very low cooling water consumption makes WSA technology a very competitive solution for the treatment of waste gases.

Our technology has proven feasible for treating sulfurous gases in many different applications, and today more than 140 units have been contracted worldwide handling a wide range of gas flows and with daily sulfuric acid production ranging from 4 to 1,140 MTPD.

The presentation will explain the basic principles of the WSA technology and the alternatives for refinery applications.

Jose Revilla, Haldor TopsoeJose Revilla is a Process Engineer with more than 10 years experience in the sulfuric acid industry. He has experience in operation and evaluation of sulfuric acid plants – conventional single and double contact, and WSA & SNOx technologies. Jose is currently the Technical Service Engineer for Topsoe WAS and SNOx plants in Latin America.

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