Paper: An Effective One-Step Process For Selectively Removing Hydrogen Sulfide From Sour Gas

A variety of sour gas sweetening processes have been commercially available for a number of years, and reports of new processes appear regularly. Many of these processes present severe problems in economics and operating consistency for selectively removing hydrogen sulfide from sour gas, especially in the presence of high concentrations of carbon dioxide. This presentation describes a new one-step process which selectively removes H2S, even in the presence of CO2, and converts it directly to elemental sulfur. Only one vessel is used and this operates unattended or with minimum manpower. No recirculating pump, regenerating vessels, or reboilers are required. And perhaps most important, the spent slurry produced has been declared non-hazardous by most regulatory agencies. Field operations have shown this one-step process to be safe and reliable. Experience has shown that existing available process equipment can often be adapted to use the process. Guidelines for equipment design are given and field applications for this type of process are suggested. Specific field installations are cited to illustrate the safe and simple operation of this new system which requires comparatively low capital investment.