SULPHUR HANDLING TERMINAL IN RUWAIS

Brief Process Description

Sulphur Handling Facility consists of following four functional units

Liquid sulphur storage and offsites

Liquid sulphur delivered by road tankers of 30 tons is unloaded to sulphur unloading pit which is transported to liquid sulphur storage tank by the pit pump. All liquid sulphur unloading or transfer line is steam jacketed to maintain the liquid sulphur temperature of 135 C with low pressure steam to prevent liquid sulphur from freezing.

Liquid sulphur in liquid sulphur storage tank is pumped to sulphur day pit through sulphur filters by sulphur transfer pump, from where the sulphur is pumped to granulation units.

Granulation

A total of nine granulation units have been installed with a capacity of approx 1000 Tons/day. Each granulator is provided with its own dedicated wet scrubber.

Exhaust vapours form the new granulators is burnt at the incinerator.

Marine terminal

Marine terminal is used to unload liquid sulphur coming from Janana shipment form ADGAS. Approx. 8000 Tons is unloaded and transferred to storage tanks. Hydraulic control system is used to operate to unloading arm.

Solid sulphur storage, handling and utilities.

Sulphur product from granulators is collected at collecting conveyors equipped with dust collection system and transferred to a bulk storage building. There are two bulk storage buildings circular type of 40,000 Tons of capacity and linear type of 110,000Tons of capacity. There is also a facility to load sulphur granules onto a truck. Granulated sulphur is exported to ships through the shiploader system on a conveyor at the rate of 1000 Tons/hr.

Wet Scrubbers  :

Granulators

The Sulphur granulation units rely on a stream of cool, humid air to cool and solidify the solid sulphur. Since the air stream leaving the granulators is vented to atmosphere, the potential exists for discharge of particular sulphur.

To reduce the level of particular sulphur emitted, the granulaotrs are equipped with a wet scrubbing system on the effluent air system.

Conveying system dust collectors

During the normal course of handling solid sulphur, some sulphur dust will be generated. To keep this dust from accumulating within the conveyors and causing mechanical problems, the conveyor enclosures are swept with air. The dust is entrained into thte air stream. This dust laden air system, if vented directly, would be a major source of particulate emissions.

Therefore all conveyors are equipped with dust collection systems.

Liquid Sulphur Feed Characteristics as per the Engineering data

Solid Sulphur Product specification Characteristics as per the Engineering data

SULPHUR PRODUCTION

Principle of Operation

Sulphur granulation is a size enlargement process by which liquid sulphur is sprayed onto a "core" or "seed" materisl and cooled to solidification before the next coat of liquid is added. Through repeated application of liquid sulphur, the seed increases in volume and weight. Each granule is formed through step-enlargment and, therefore, the granules grow in size to reach optimum dimensions for handling, transportation and friability. As the granule enlarges, the liquid sulphur sprayed onto the smaller seed granule is bonded before the next coating is applied. This elimates the inherent shrinkage effect of sulphur during the solidification stage and ensures that the process provided a granule that is spherical, dry and completely free of voids.

The size-enlargement process occurs in a rotating drum. This drum serves as a tumbling bed, a liquid sulphur spray booth and controlled heat removal area. Seed cores, consisting of fines and undersized, recycled granules, are fed to the sulphur-granulating drum at a predetermined rate. Travelling down the length of the drum due to positive displacement, the seed is lifted by flights on the inside of the periphery of the drum. As the drum rotates, the seed particles are lifted vertically and dropped from approximately the twelve o’clock position, which results in the formation of a thick, falling curtain. Liquid sulphur is sprayed onto the falling curtain by a series of spray nozzles which are located along the length of the drum and which operate at pre-set pressures. An air blower pulls air through the drum to provide a cooling medium for the granulating drum as seed material.

The GX systems uses ambient air as the cooling medium and the volume of air pulled through the drum can varied depending on ambient temperatures. In addition, the utilization of air inside the drum is enhanced through the use of cross-fans which serve several functions. Firstly each fan agitates the air which is travelling down the length of the drum, creating a spiral effect. The air comes into contact with the granulating product and the humidification system several times throughout its journey. Secondly the GX process contains an arrangement to humidify the cooling air and this humidified air is drawn by the fans and blown onto the falling curtain, which creates and evaporative cooling effect on the granules. The method of heat extraction is very efficient and the level of humidification can be adjusted to reflect local ambient conditions.

Enlarged granules emerging from the granulating drum are deposited onto a vibratory screen separator where the granules are segregated into product and undersize granules. The product size granules are taken out of the processing area to storage. The undersize particles are directed to the granulating rum for further size enlargement. The screening procedure will control the finished product size and this aspect of the GX process can be adjusted to provide the customer and end user with the size distribution required.

GRANULATION DRUM

SHIPLOADER