Improving reaction furnace performance by Modeling Reactor furnace of Modified Claus Process

According to environmental issues, gas refineries have to eliminate H2S and reduce hydrogen sulfide emission. Claus process and it’s derivatives are the most common process, used by refineries for sulfur recovery. It’s main purpose is the decomposition of gaseous compounds such as H2S combined with the recovery of sulfur .The purpose of this article is to model the main reactions that take place in the reactor furnace and compare it with simulated process and actual data. Mathematical model is based on the mole and energy balance and resulted equations relate conversion of H2S and furnace temperature in the process conditions. Since the most important point is the selection of suitable reaction conditions to increase the reactor performance, model is formulated to maximize a performance of Claus plant. To substantiate the theoretical model, we used actual process condition and feed composition in the Claus plant of Shahid Hasheminejad Gas Refinery. Model equations have been solved using MATLAB program and on the other hand results from SULSIM® simulation compared with actual plant data. In order to compare calculation error, AAD (Average absolute deviation) method is used. The AAD of results of simulation with modeling is 5.33 %, AAD of modeling results with actual data is 2.07 % and AAD of simulation results with real data is 4.77 % .So error values are very little that show accuracy and precision of modeling and simulation. The predicting curve for different parameters of reaction furnace according to changing conditions and specifications input flow are given. Finally, the various proposals based on the results, are provided to improve reaction furnace performance.

Keywords:

Claus Process , Improving , Modeling , Reactor Furnace , Sulfur Recovery