Process Economics Program Report 84A
Published: Jun-85
In this report, SRI considers versions of two general types of sulfuric acid plants: one with elemental sulfur as feed, and the other with pyrometallurgical sulfur dioxide as feed.
New sulfuric acid plants based on elemental sulfur as feed are designed to recover much more energy from the process than was heretofore economically feasible, because energy prices have risen much more rapidly than construction costs during the last decade. The retro-fitting of old (1970s) plants to increase energy recovery is also economically attractive in many cases. This report evaluates and compares typical new, old, and retrofitted plants.
In the United States and some other countries, for example,
Canada, pollution control regulations have forced sulfide ore processors to
modernize their production units. The modernization usually entails replacing
air with oxygen or oxygen-enriched air; this change increases the sulfur dioxide
concentration in the off-gas from the ore processing unit. Thus, in the modernized
unit, the sulfuric acid plant uses a sulfur dioxide concentration of 10-13.5
mol% in the feed to the converter, whereas in older plants, the concentration
is 4-9 mol%. The higher concentration lowers the capital cost of the plant and
reduces the net energy usage. The report evaluates this type of sulfuric acid
plant, and illustrates the effect of sulfur dioxide concentration on costs.
Other PEP Related Reports
The PEP report abstracts shown above are provided as a complete historical reference of related PEP reports. The production cost estimates are updated in the PEP Yearbook. Lists of all PEP reports and reviews are available here.
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