Study of effects of oxygen enrichment on sulfur recovery unit furnace and flame stability

One of the methods proposed for sulfur recovery of lean acid gases is using excess amount of oxygen. This method could be suitable for those plants which H2S composition in the acid gas is below 10% [4]. In this process, pure oxygen is added to the inlet air stream to the acid gas burner furnace, resulting in higher oxygen content of the combustion air. In this work, simulation of this strategy is carried out and the results compared with the furnace data of a conventional sulfur recovery unit. Simulation was done with equilibrium model and had a average absolute relative deviation less than 3% (except COS component). Pridiction of COS production is not acceptable and needs to consider deeper via more accurate models. Also sulfur recovery in furnace increased from 72.22% to 74.65% by incresing oxygen composition

Keywords:

Sulfur recovery unit , furnace , oxygen enrichment , simulation