Regenerable SO2 Scrubbing System

[Ulther]

I wonder if a regenerable sulfur dioxide (SO2) scrubbing process would be a suitable option for cleaning combustion gases from refinery heat and power generating plant. Currently, there are two leading technologies in this area: Cansolv and Belco. However, as far as I know neither has been used in such application (so far they have been used for SRU, FCCU or FCU tail gases).
Is this a matter of huge volume of combustion gases?
If so, would it be possible to split gas stream and use a few absorbers working in parallel?
What do you think?
Has anyone any experience with regenerable systems for SO2 removal?

 

[Jason5000]

I don't see why Cansolv, Wellman-Lord, or something of sort wouldn't work, but depending on the volume of the flue gas the diameter of towers required could make it prohibitively expensive.

What are you burning for a fuel source? Amine treating on the front end would be a little more typical approach for a refinery unless you're burning fuel oil, coke or something like that.

 

[Ulther]

I was talking about fuel that consists of various heavy oils (including vacuum residue), where the only alternative to combustion gas treating is expensive hydroprocessing in combination with solvent extraction (and it still wouldn't be as effective as stack gas treating).

What would be the economics of regenerable SO2 scrubbing compared to traditional approach with lime slurry as an absorbent and large quantities of calcium sulfate as a by product?

I haven't heard about regenerable system treating more than 500 000 Nm3/hr. That is why I asked if using a battery of a few absorbers working in parallel couldn't be a suitable approach to overcome this problem.

regards,

 

[Jason5000]

I'm can't comment on what your economics would look like, but as a reference point, the coal fired power plants I'm marginally familiar with that have a scrubber system use the lime slurry approach. I imagine your application is somewhat smaller than a power plant, but its over twice as large as the tail gas stream from the biggest Claus plant I've heard of.

How about building a coker or resid hydrocracker and turning these streams into light products?

 

[jmw]

Quite a bit of work is being done on EGS for the marine industry. You could look on the SEAaT web site for some links or Shell Marine Fuels web site.
I think Kittiwake has something to do with this.

JMW

http://www.ViscoAnalyser.com