Oxygen Enrichment in Claus Plants

As the sulphur content in crude oil rises, many refineries are increasingly relying on Claus plants to increase flexibility in handling feed gas composition variations. Claus plants convert concentrated hydrogen sulphide (H₂S) fractions into elemental sulphur. They can also remove pollutants, particularly by decomposing ammonia.

However, environmental regulations continue to tighten, putting growing pressure on Claus sulphur recovery processes and this step can become a bottleneck within the refinery.

Boosting efficiency

You can overcome this problem by enriching the combustion air in a Claus plant with oxygen. This increases the capacity significantly. Our innovative burner technology ensures excellent mixing of hydrogen sulphide and oxygen-enriched air over a wide load range.

Benefits of oxygen enrichment

• Increased Claus plant capacity at low revamp capital cost
• Increased productivity without changing the pressure drop
• More effective treatment of feeds containing ammonia
• Greater flexibility in handling feed gas composition variations
• Less effort for tail-gas purification (reduced nitrogen flow)
• Ease of installation with minimum disruption to plant operation.

We have the technology and expertise to enable all levels of oxygen enrichment – from low levels through mid levels up to 100% oxygen with our SURE burner technology. Our SURE™ burner solution is a tip mixed design offering low pressure drop, operational flexibility and enhanced contaminant destruction.

Find out more about BOC SURE™ Technology