Brief description of used 400MTPD sulphuric acid 98% plant:

1. Plant started construction in 1995 and commissioned in 1996 August.
2. Plant was shut down in 2007 due to intense competition from imported sulphuric acid from Korea and Japan.
3. The feedstock is sulphur. We purchased molten sulphur from the nearby refinery: Incidentally we are also exporters of solidified sulphur mainly flake and pelletized form
4. The sulphuric acid plant is a double conversion double absorption design.
5. The nameplate capacity is 400MT per day and is design to run 335 days a year
6. The plant has a co generation system using 30 Bars superheated steam and 11 MT per hour to produce 520kVA of self generated electricity to run its main sulphuric acid circulation pump and main cooling water circulation pump.
7. There are two blowers: the start up blower and the main blower: main blower is powered by steam turbine based on 22-30 Barg of superheated steam @17 -22 MT per hour. Source of steam is from waste heat boiler and steam superheater
8. The converter is charged with vanadium pentoxide catalyst supplied by Topsoe Haldoe. The design is 3 + 2 conversions. Last known overall conversion is 98% based on SO2 weight for weight basis.
9. There is a drying tower irrigated by sulphuric acid to produce dry air for combustion of sulphur
10. The steam coils in the sulphur pit are made of Stainless Steel 316L
11. The acid pipe lines are supplied by Chemetic International with trade name “Saramet”-it resists corrosion at temperature below 103 degree Celsius.
12. The acid circulation tank is lined with acid proof bricks
13. The main acid circulation pump is supplied by Lewis Pump of St Louis
14. There are two sets of cooling towers: one for cooling sulphuric acid and the other is to recover the excess steam from the co-generation system.
15. The main acid coolers and the heat exchanger for preheating of acid is anodically protected. Supplied by Chemetic International
16. The gas to gas coolers are made of Stainless Steel 304 and are by Chemetic International.
17. The control system for the acid plant is a DCS by Yokogawa.
18. Preheating system is based on LPG for shorter time taken for start up
19. The tail gas is scrubbed with caustic solution in a gas scrubber system before emitting into the environment. There is a SO2 gas monitoring system to keep a record of the level of SO2 emitted into the atmosphere.
20. The plant is operated by 2 technicians per 12 shift.