2 Semestre Acid Today

www.H2S04Today.com Fall/Winter 2012

C o v e r i n g M a i n t e n a n C e S o l u t i o n S f o r t h e i n d u S t r y

IN THIS ISSUE > > > > innovative heat exchanger repair 4

global sulfuric acid market – 2012 and beyond Page 18

Mosaic shares sulfuric acid best management practices to extend run time between turn arounds Page 26

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Langeloth seeks to preserve crucial reliability,increaseperformance PAGE 6

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Vol. 18 No. 2 Covering Maintenance Solutions for the Industry Fall/Winter 2012

froM the PuBliSher

www.H2S04Today.com Fall/Winter 2012

C o v e r i n g M a i n t e n a n C e S o l u t i o n S f o r t h e i n d u S t r y

IN THIS ISSUE >> > innovative heat exchanger repair Page 14

global sulfuric acid market – 2012 and beyond Page 18

Mosaic shares sulfuric acid best management practices

to extend run time between turn arounds Page 26Keystone PublishingP.O. Box 3502Covington, LA70434

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Langeloth seeks to preserve crucial reliability,increaseperformance PAGE 6

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Dear Friends, Welcome to the Fall/Winter 2012 issue of Sulfuric Acid Today magazine. We have dedicated ourselves to covering the latest products and technology for those in the industry, and

hope you find this issue both helpful and informative. While publishing the magazine is always interesting, one of my favorite aspects of this job is planning and attending confer-ences for you, our readers. This issue includes information on one event that was successfully completed, and one we are looking for-ward to. We have been hosting our Australasia Sulfuric Acid Work-shop for a decade. We began in Melbourne in 2002, and returned there in April 2012. A record number of attendees enjoyed panel

discussion topics that delved into heat exchanger maintenance, acid tower mist elimination methods, maintenance of ESPs,

safety issues and recent incident reviews, sulfur pit mainte-nance and filtering techniques, converter replacement and catalyst screening, steam equipment issues, gas scrubbing maintenance, on-line condition and gas leak repairs and inspection items. The dynamic exchange of information between participants is always wonderful to see. I am also excited to announce that the upcoming 2013 Sulfuric Acid Roundtable will be held April 8-11, 2013, in Scottsdale, Ariz. We will have Co-Sponsor dis-plays and presentations, as well as panel discussions se-lected by the registered plant participants. Register early to vote on the topics you want to hear. The Roundtable will also include hospitality events to encourage networking and the casual sharing of ideas between peers that makes such a difference in an industry like ours. While you are waiting for the Roundtable, we hope that this issue of Sulfuric Acid Today will provide you with

some innovative technologies or assistance with your profession. In this issue are several articles regarding the latest technology avail-able to the sulfuric acid industry. Be sure to read articles includ-ing: NORAM’s recent projects in Africa for a large fertilizer com-plex (page 12), Minara Resources implements an innovative heat exchanger repair (page 14), the latest sulfuric acid global market information (page 18), Lewis Pumps shares some common prob-lems in sulfuric acid installations (page 20), Beltran WESPs deliver superior gas cleaning performance for Zambia’s fast-growing cop-per industry (page 22), Mosaic shares sulfuric acid best manage-ment practices to extend run time between turn arounds (page 26) and Sulphurnet explains sulfur processing melting and purification advantages (page 34). I would like to welcome our new and returning Sulfuric Acid Today advertisers, including Acid Piping Technology Inc., BASF, Beltran Technologies, Central Maintenance & Welding, Chat-tanooga Boiler & Tank, Chemetics Inc., Controls Southeast Inc., Corrosion Services, El Dorado Metals Inc., Haldor Topsøe A/S, Integrated Turbomachinery Inc., Koch Knight LLC, MECS Inc., Mercad Equipment Inc., NORAM Engineering & Constructors, Outotec, RAMCO, SNC-Lavalin, Southwest Refractory of Texas, Spraying Systems Co., The Roberts Company, Thorpe Engineer-ing and Construction Group, VIP International and Weir Minerals Lewis Pumps. We are currently compiling information for our Spring/Sum-mer 2013 issue. If you have any suggestions for articles or other information you would like included, please feel free to contact me via e-mail at [email protected] I look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,Kathy Hayward

on the Cover6 the langeloth Metallurgical Co.

recently completed a major capital improvement project designed to improve profitability, reliability and performance at its facility outside Pittsburgh, Pa.

dePartMentS10 lessons learned Case histories from the sulfuric

acid industry

35 Product news latest news on products and technology

36 industry insights news items about the sulfuric acid

and related industries

42 Mark your calendar Previews of future events in industry

12 african skies sport new acid towers 14 innovative heat exchanger repair 16 the roberts Company serves clients worldwide 18 global sulfuric acid market – 2012 and beyond 20 Common problems in sulfuric acid installations 22 Beltran WeSPs deliver superior gas cleaning performance for Zambia’s

fast-growing copper industry 24 acid coolers — failing to plan = planning to fail 26 Sulfuric acid best management practices to extend run time between

turn arounds 30 understanding drop size: key to increasing throughput and optimizing

performance in sulfur burning 32 Safety! the next frontier 34 Sulfur processing: melting and purification 38 duPont hosts Best Practices Workshop 38 annual aiChe conference convenes in Clearwater 39 aussies and acid: australia workshop marks a decade

down under

PUBLISHED BYKeystone Publishing L.L.C.

PUBLISHERKathy Hayward

EDITORApril Kabbash

ASSISTANT EDITORApril Smith

DESIGN & LAYOUT

Mailing Address: P.O. Box 3502Covington, LA 70434

Phone: (985) 893-8692 Fax: (985) 893-8693

E-Mail: [email protected]

SUBSCRIPTIONSU.S. Plant Personnel —-Complimentary

U.S. Subscription —- $39 per year (2 issues)Internat’l Subscription —-$59 per year (2 issues)

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39

IN MEMORY OF …

industry mourns loss of two sulfuric acid experts

The sulfuric acid industry is mourning the loss of two industry professionals, Tim J. Browder and Robert (Bob) Jones. Browder, a well known technology expert, died earlier this year in Medford, Ore. He is sur-vived by his wife, Dora Browder, two sons and two daughters. Browder was a U.S. Air Force World War II veteran. He flew more than fifty bombing mis-sions over Europe and survived several crashes, having been rescued by the underground resis-tance in Italy and the former Yugoslavia. After World War II, he returned to the United States and studied engineering. He was a certified Civil, Structural and Chemical Engineer. Browder started his career in sulfuric acid plants in 1950 as a plant engineer for Southern Fertilizer & Chemical Co. There he gained experience operating acid plants based on dif-ferent technologies. In 1953, he joined Titlestad Corporation and remained with the company until 1964. During this pe-riod, he was involved in the design of 34 sulfuric acid plants as Chief Pro-cess Engineer. These plants included metallurgical gas plants, sulfur burn-ing plants and sludge decomposition plants. In 1964, Browder was asked to join Ralph M. Parson Company to help the company enter the sulfuric acid plant business. He worked there until 1974 and played a leading role in the design, construction and start up of an additional 19 acid plants. During his design experiences, Browder developed his own technol-ogy and design templates, for which he is well remembered. “He had his own templates for each type of plant,” explained Shailesh Sampat, project engineer at Solaris Consultants Inc. “He had some very simple but accurate thumb rules to perform calculations from material balance to stress analysis of ducts.” These templates al-lowed Browder to complete a plant design with-in very few hours, Sampat said. Notable features of Browder’s technology were:—Unusual sulfur based DCDA plant design that was not based on the DCDA scheme patent-ed by Bayer the 1970s. Browder’s design offered significant cost reduction when compared to the DCDA designs based on Bayer’s template. —Five bed converters to reduce SO2 emissions to 100 ppm, which was well below the EPA limit. Browder was among the first to advocate their use.—“Hot bypass” to prevent condensation in cold heat exchangers of acid plants. Browder was the first to use this design feature, which has been explained in several papers he published.—Low air pressure atomized sulfur burn-ers without any moving parts, which reduc-

es furnace size significantly. —Cold pulled expansion bellows that are under less stress when heated. In 1974, Browder started Tim J Browder Co. By this time, Browder had already designed 63 plants in 15 different countries ranging from 25 tpd to 1,800 tpd. The following is a partial list of the companies who used his technology to build acid plants: E.L. Bateman South Africa; Latisa Mexico; Mechim Brussels; Natron Con-sltoria Brazil; Hitachi Zosen Japan; and DMCC India. Browder is remembered not only for his design strength, but for his no nonsense style. Sampat recalls being very impressed with Browder’s “down to earth” approach toward designing acid plants. When Sampat first met Browder in the 1980s, computers were becom-ing instrumental in the design of acid plants. “Like many in my generation,” Sampat said, “I wanted to do all my design work using only computers. I clearly remember Tim telling me in no uncertain terms, ‘If you need anything more than an ordinary calculator to design an

acid plant, you do not understand the subject.’ Numerous design sessions with Tim proved he was correct,” Sampat said. While many take their retire-ment years easy, Browder remained “very passionate” about sulfuric acid plants, Sampat said. Just a few years ago, Browder was trying to develop a way to reduce emissions in single contact acid plants without convert-ing them to DCDA. Another sulfuric acid specialist, industry consultant Robert F. Jones of Baton Rouge, La., passed away unexpectedly on October 6 of this year; he was 74 years old. Jones is survived by his wife, Geraldine Da-vis Jones, two daughters, a sister, two granddaughters and a nephew. Jones began his long career

with National Led in St. Louis, Mo. in 1960 and worked there for 17 years. In 1972, he helped build one of the first double absorption plants in the United States. In 1977, Jones joined American Cyanamid and assisted with operator training and the start-up of a new unit at the complex. He was respon-sible for the acid side including gas flows and heat exchangers. In 1990, Jones joined VIP International in Baton Rouge, La. Here he worked with staff, training them on how to work safely with strong sulfuric acid. Jones left VIP International in 1995 and began consulting for such companies as Lewis Pump, NORAM Engineering & Constructors and Monsanto Enviro Chem. In 2007, he retired after two knee operations and open heart sur-gery. He spent some of his final years consult-ing with a local pump repair company in New Orleans. The dedication and talent of both Tim Browder and Bob Jones will surely be missed by the sulfuric acid community. q

Tim Browder: 1925-2012

Bob Jones: 1938-2012

PAGE 4 Sulfuric Acid Today • Fall/Winter 2012

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SELECT SERVICES> Studies to full EPC/EPCM> Patented process equipment design and supply> Modular design experience and capabilities> Operator training simulator> E-training

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+1 416 [email protected]

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In business since 1911, SNC-Lavalin is a global service provider with permanent offices across Canada and in over 40 countries worldwide. We offer the full spectrum of technical expertise from engineering consulting and design services to full EPC/EPCM assignments, including project financing, long-term concession agreements, and the operation and maintenance of infrastructure assets.

SNC-Lavalin Fenco has been delivering custom solutions to the sulphuric acid industry for over 40 years. With offices worldwide, we offer clients global solutions and a range of proprietary products developed through years of innovation. These products are available with every plant we build combining state-of-the-art design with proven and tested technology.

ENGINEERED WITH EXPERIENCE DELIVERED WITH CONFIDENCE

he Langeloth Metallurgical Co. complex, located 25 miles west of Pittsburgh, Pa., is a world-class facility

with a long history of producing high-quality metallurgical products used mainly in the steel and chemical industries. The 147-acre facility has a roasting capacity of 35 million pounds of molybdenum per year. Started in 1926 and owned by Thompson Creek Metals since 1993, the Langeloth facility’s history is full of firsts. “This was the first facility to ever roast molybdenum concentrates,” Bob Dorfler, general manager, Langeloth Metals Co., said. “No other company in the United States offers the upgraded product line that we do. This was the first place that ferromolybdenum was made, the first site to commercially convert molybdenite concentrates to technical molybdic oxide (also known as roasted molybdenum concentrate) and the first site to produce pure molybdic oxide by sublimation.” Molybdenum is an important industrial metal principally used for metallurgical applications as a ferro-alloy in steels where high strength and temperature- or corrosion-resistant properties are sought. The addition of molybdenum enhances strength and toughness, as well as wear- and

corrosion-resistance in steels when added as an alloy. Molybdenum is used in major areas such as chemical and petrochemical processing, oil and gas and the power and automotive industries. It is also used in non-metallurgical applications such as catalysts, lubricants, water treatment and pigments. The majority of Langeloth’s multiple-hearth furnaces are used for the conversion (roasting) of molybdenum disulfide concentrates into technical grade molybdenum oxide (tech oxide), which is sold in powder form or briquettes or converted into pure molybdenum oxide or ferromolybdenum. Some furnaces process spent catalyst material containing other metals. A large portion of the molybdenum concentrates processed at the Langeloth facility come from the company’s Thompson Creek Mine. The company buys concentrates from other mining companies to process at Langeloth and sells in the market, and it also roasts concentrates on a toll basis for third-party customers. The roasters, which operate at temperatures up to 1,200 degrees F, convert molybdenum disulfide concentrate (MoS2) into tech oxide (MoO3) with a sulfur content of less than 0.1 percent. The roasters yield gases with sulfur dioxide

(SO2). The sulfur dioxide is converted to sulfuric acid (H2SO4), a byproduct that is sold to industrial customers. As a result of this pollution-control initiative, sulfur dioxide emissions for molybdenum processing at the Langeloth complex have been reduced by more than 99 percent. A portion of the tech oxide produced at the Langeloth complex is converted into a higher oxide grade, known as pure oxide. The process involves sublimation using a special electric furnace where tech oxide is heated until it vaporizes. On cooling, the vaporized oxide returns to the solid state but with virtually none of the impurities inherent in the technical grade oxide. Pure oxide is used in super alloys, chemicals and catalysts. Some of the tech oxide is further processed into ferromolybdenum, an alloy consisting of about 60 percent molybdenum and 40 percent iron. Ferromolybdenum is preferred by some steel mills and cast-iron foundries as a source of molybdenum in the manufacture of their steel products. The molybdenum processed at Langeloth comes from a mine owned by Thompson Creek Metals near Challis, Idaho. Known as the Thompson Creek deposit, it was discovered in 1968 by Cyprus Minerals Corporation and operated from 1983 to 1992. The mine was sold in

1993 to Thompson Creek Metals Company, which began mining at the site in April 1994. Although the molybdenum must travel to Pennsylvania for processing, the site location makes sense in view of the company’s customer locations. “This facility was built in the early 1920s and it was located here because the steel industry was in Pittsburgh,” Dorfler said. “Today, we are still close to the customers. Whether you are transporting molybdenum concentrate for conversion to molybdenum oxide or you are transporting molybdenum to your customers, you’ve got to convert it somewhere and you are virtually transporting the same volume of materials.”

a commitment to the environment Langeloth Metallurgical is dedicated to operating as an environmentally responsible producer of high quality metallurgical products. And that’s where sulfuric acid production comes in. “Our 240 ton-per-day MECS-designed acid plant is basically pollution control equipment,” Dan Himmel, Langeloth plant engineer, said. “It was installed in 1977 when the EPA deemed that our SO2

Langeloth seeks to preserve crucial reliability, increase performance

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By: April Kabbash

emissions exceeded permissible limits. We have a piece of pollution equipment that pays for itself in the sales of sulfuric acid. The revenue from acid sales as a result of operating the acid plant is very dependent on the cost of sulfur. We generate 3 to 3.5 percent sulfur dioxide SO2 emissions from our roasting ovens. This SO2 concentration is not high enough to efficiently operate this particular plant design, so in addition to SO2 generated off the roasting ovens, we burn sulfur to supplement the need and enrich that air stream to 7.5 to 8 percent SO2 content. We work with an acid broker that takes all the acid produced by the plant and sells it in the open market,” said Himmel.

Capital projects Between 2008 and 2011, Langeloth started focusing on increasing acid plant capacity and improving reliability. With recent capital investments, Langeloth is building on the company’s impressive history while

looking toward a profitable future. To improve reliability, “three capital projects were installed during our most recent shutdown,” Himmel said. “The interpass (IPAT) and final tower (FAT) replacement project, the drying tower replacement (DT) project and the acid plant maintenance outage. We began soliciting funding for these projects back in 2010.” At that time, the company planned to replace the interpass tower and the final tower in the fall of 2011. However, due to production requirements, that outage was delayed until 2012. With the delay, the decision was made to expand the scope of work to include the drying tower as well. “We had performed some significant repairs on the drying tower the year before,” Himmel said, “which included some internal structural repairs and some external shell repairs. Money invested in these repairs was the primary reason why the drying tower was not part of the initial tower replacement project. We expected to increase the life of the drying tower with these repairs, so our thinking was to get some payback on the investment before we replaced it. When it was decided to delay the IPAT and FAT tower replacement projects, we received the approval to do the third tower at the same time.” The original towers were acid-brick-lined carbon steel. For the planned new towers, Langeloth investigated material alternatives. A desire to eliminate iron sulfates, a significant source of reliability problems, from the process pointed toward alloy steels. Plant sites in Iowa and Missouri, where alloy towers are currently operating, were visited to obtain a better understanding of process differences with the use of these materials. Langeloth selected MECS as the tower supplier for several reasons: they held the current plant design basis information including original drawings, the Zecor family of proprietary high silicon stainless steel alloy materials are some of the best available for this service and they had strong experience in alloy tower design.

the current problem The acid brick lined absorption towers were deteriorating, causing safety concerns and low operational reliability. Other issues included:— acid brick spalding— ferrous sulfate growth behind the brick lining— corrosion of the tower shells— acid leaks— inability to predict failure These problems led to unplanned metallurgical roasting downtime, compromised safety, molybdenum oxide production losses, and loss of acid sales. The time had come to make some changes.

Scope and decision to start projectProject priority was escalated in 2008 because of significant interpass and drying tower repairs. Corrosion damage to the acid absorption tower shells was a common problem, requiring unplanned production shutdowns to perform repairs. Iron sulfate accumulation was a source of chronic blockage problems in level measuring instrumentation and pipelines, and was a source of flow restriction and increased pressure drop in the tower packed bed sections.

Project scope basis:— Eliminate iron sulfate formation in the strong acid section of the acid plant. Eliminating the iron sulfates required the elimination of all sources of iron. Fe + H2SO4 -> FeSO4 + H2—The goal of removing sources of iron from the plant forced investigation of alloys suitable for strong sulfuric acid service.—Eliminate corrosion of the drying, interpass and final towers. Eliminating the corrosion of the towers required complete protection of the carbon steel shells. This could be done with either brick-lined carbon steel towers with alloy piping or alloy towers with alloy piping.—Replace the existing drying, interpass and final towers. The existing 35-year-old towers were beyond repair. Re-bricking them was not an option.—Replace Mondi on these towers to remove them as a source of Fe. Mondi piping material was used exclusively throughout the acid plant for strong acid service. It has a service life of about 12 to 15 years and is a known source of Fe in the formation of iron sulfates. It needed to be replaced to eliminate it as a source of Fe. —Minimize acid plant downtime. The value of lost production is variable as it is determined by the market value of molybdenum oxide. Lost production value is significant. —Production requirements only allowed for an outage schedule of eight weeks for this project.

design summary As shown in Fig. 1, Saramet, Sandvik SX and Zecor are the proprietary austenitic stainless steels that were investigated. They all contain relatively high levels of silicon (4 to 6 percent), which improves corrosion resistance in hot strong sulfuric acid service. Saramet comes in two variations, with slightly different compositions. Zecor is leaner in chromium and nickel than the other two proprietary alloys, but it contains more silicon, an element known to promote corrosion resistance in hot, strong acid. In Fig. 2, there are clear differences between the alloys, with the silicon containing alloys showing improved resistance in more dilute acid.

Bob Dorfler, general manager, Langeloth Metals Co.

Gene Petcovic, project manager for acid plant rebuild, Huth Technologies.

Dan Himmel, Langeloth plant engineer, Langeloth Metals Co.

Section of original interpass tower shell removed in preparation for beginning brick removal during demolition. Note the fluoropolymer fabric and mastic damaged by acid permeation of the brick lining.

Sulfuric Acid Today • Fall/Winter 2012 PAGE 7

Original cold pass heat exchanger in process of being scrapped. Note the significant sulfate blockage at the inlet to the shell side of the tubesheet.

Section of interpass tower shell being removed for scrap processing.

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design Capacity The new design needed to maintain original brick lined tower external diameters, but debottleneck capacities through larger internal diameters with the alloy towers. Plant capacity:— 240 TPD 100 percent H2S04 basis maximum — 120 TPD 100 percent H2S04 basis minimum — 30,200 SCFM (wet basis) of roaster gas containing 2.4

percent S02 supplemented by 32 TPD sulfur— Minimum 14,500 SCFM (wet basis) of roaster

gas containing 2.4 percent S02, supplemented with approximately 17 TPD sulfur

— Maximum instantaneous gas handling capacity of 33,200 SCFM

New absorption tower capacity:— 290 TPD 100 percent H2S04 basis maximum — 120 TPD 100 percent H2S04 basis minimum — 39,500 SCFM (wet basis) of roaster gas containing 2.4

percent S02 supplemented by approximately 38 TPD sulfur

— Minimum 14,500 SCFM (wet basis) of roaster gas containing 2.4 percent S02, supplemented with approximately 17 TPD sulfur

— Maximum instantaneous gas handling capacity of 40,000 SCFM

retrofitted plant layout MECS performed a plant survey, including development of a three-dimensional model that was the basis for their detailed engineering. Included in the outage work scope was normal acid plant maintenance outage work, including major duct replacements along with typical acid plant outage repairs such as catalyst screening work, platforms, stairways, insulation and heat tracing, as well as a relocated motor control center (MCC) building. “The MCC building had been a safety concern of ours. The 5,000 volt starter for the main axial vane compressor was obsolete so we combined its replacement with an MCC relocation. The acid plant MCC was relocated into an area separate from our control room. The total investment for the three capital projects was approximately $14 million,” Himmel said. “Two acid cooler replacements were included in the outage work. It was not exactly an‘in-kind’ replacement, because the Mercad Equipment coolers are a little bit unique in design. Typical anodic protection shell and tube exchangers have an anode that is connected on one end and passes through a portion of the cooler,” Himmel said. “Mercad has developed a design with an anode that passes through the entire length of the cooler and voltage is applied to both ends of the anode. This is an improved design because loss of current strength along the length of the anode due to anode resistance is minimized. By applying voltage to both ends of the anode, constant current is achieved across its entire full length–something unique in Mercad’s design that we liked. Mercad was also the successful vendor on a cold pass heat exchanger for the converter vessel that was replaced during this outage.”

acid tower replacement Over the past 10 years, the Langeloth acid towers had undergone numerous repairs and patches. They were experiencing permeation of the brick lining and sulfate growth behind the brick, both fairly typical of a 35-year-old brick-lined tower. “We’ve had significant concern with our ability to maintain these towers and keep them operating between outages,” Himmel said. “Our outages were typically

annual outages until about five years ago. Improved outage planning and equipment reliability have allowed us to run 24/7 for two years between planned outages. However, that has really forced the issues with the deterioration of 35-year-old towers. It was not unusual during the two-year period to need to make emergency repairs on tower shell leaks. In this application, a metallurgical roasting application, we roast molybdenum concentrate 24/7. Unplanned shutdowns, especially emergency unplanned shutdowns, significantly impact planned production. Planned production is based on operating 24 hours a day for two years between shutdowns.” “Our focus on the reliability of this acid plant is a little different from most other plants…our focus is that it must run. We cannot be shutdown. If the acid plant shuts down, then our roasters shut down,” Himmel said. “When our roasting ovens shut down, we typically go through a lengthy shutdown and re-start process for the ovens. A plant restart can be a 3 to 4 day process. This is not acceptable; this is lost production, lost revenue. So our focus is squarely on reliability. We install redundancy where we need it; and we emphasize repairs, maintenance and improvements that will allow us two years of continuous reliable operation.” The age of the original towers and their accelerated deterioration coupled with the crucial need for reliability led to the decision to replace them with improved materials of construction. “With the use of alloy towers, we will be able to realistically extend our outage to two years. This allows us to control outage timing. No longer will tower repairs force shutdowns. Required mechanical maintenance, such as a compressor tear-down and bearing replacements, will be the issues making outages necessary. Critical component monitoring, such as compressor temperature and

Fig. 3: MECS’ three-dimensional plant designNew final tower acid cooler being lifted into place.

Upper platform installation on the new alloy strong acid towers.

The strong acid tower area of the plant with the new towers in position.

Fig. 1: Alloys investigated

Name UNS No. Nominal Composition (wt n) Fe Cr Ni Mo N Cu W Si

304 S30403 Bal 18 8 - - - - -316 S31603 Bal 17 10 2 - - - -310 S31003 Bal 25 20 - - - - -Alloy 20 NC8020 Bal 20 28 2.5 - 3.5 - -

Zeron 100 S32760 Bal 25 7 3.5 0.25 0.7 0.7 0.62507 S32750 Bal 25 7 3.5 0.25 - - 0.6

Saramet 23 S30601 Bal 18 18 - - - - 5Saramet 35 S32615 Bal 18 18 1 - 2 - 5Sandvik SX S32615 Bal 18 18 1 - 2 - 5

ZeCor S38515 Bal 14 15 1 - 1 - 6

90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100

150

140

122

100

80

60

40

Tem

pera

ture

(°C)

Sandvik SX

ZeCorSaramet

Zeron 100

Fig. 2: Iso-corrosion curves (0.1mm/y) in strong sulfuric acid


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vibration enables prediction of mechanical failure. With the elimination of the tower maintenance, the compressor maintenance and condition of the converter catalyst are the major limiting factors keeping this plant from running much longer than two years between outages,” Himmel said. “We chose the alloy towers because we wanted to eliminate the sulfate problems we were experiencing. Many shutdowns were due to sulfate formation,” Himmel said. “The expansive force of sulfate is like ice. The bottom of the towers were bowed out due to the sulfates; it pushed the brick off the walls. We would get blocked instrumentation–it would affect our ability to measure levels in towers. And the sulfates would cause an imbalance on the compressor wheel and force us to shutdown and clean the wheel. We would get sulfates blocking drain lines and sulfates throughout the piping and the towers themselves. This would cause us unexpected outages or failures that would force us to shutdown. We looked at the alloy towers as a way to eliminate sulfates from our process. We also looked at the cost savings for the length of the outages; this helped us make the decision to go with alloy towers.” Once the decision had been made, Himmel and his coworkers hashed out the details with Chesterfield, Mo.-based MECS. “When we first sat down with MECS on our IPAT and FAT tower project, almost four years ago, one thing that was discussed was converting this plant to use a shared pump tank for the towers. In this type of plant, the towers would share a portion of the tank and there would be a dividing wall so the drying tower would have its own portion of the pump tank. It was thought this was a more reliable design,” Himmel said. “As MECS looked at the complexity and the constraint of the eight-week outage, of trying to tear out the whole tank deck, install a pump tank, tie it to the new towers and all the existing conduit there, particularly for the pumps and some of the controls, they came to the realization this would take significantly more time then we were able to allow for the outage. We decided to keep individual pump tank design to minimize the installation timeline.” Other changes introduced during the project included a change in the introduction of dilution water. “The dilution water for the ZeCor tower is premixed before it enters the towers,” Himmel said. “A Teflon®-lined series of wells and elbows is used to pre-mix dilution water before it enters the tower. The reason for that is you don’t want to create any zones of low strength acid in the sumps of these towers–this would be a potential area for corrosion to occur in this alloy. This alloy has good corrosion resistance down to 90 percent strength; below that, you will start to have some accelerated corrosion losses.” “Upon MECS’ recommendation, we went back to the bubbler-type level controls. We had guided wave radar level controls in the stilling wells of the old towers, but they were subject to problems with sulfates. Since installing the bubbler-type level controls, they have been very reliable.” Another new introduction is the PeGASyS™ test for the performance of the converter. The PeGASyS system analyzes the SO2 and O2 converter gas streams, detects leaks in gas-to-gas heat exchangers, identifies SO2 gas by-passing, measures overall plant conversion performance and calibrates existing plant analysis instrumentation. “We do plan to schedule the PeGASyS test soon to understand the performance of the converter and will keep track of how well the new towers are performing in the future,” Himmel said. “We also plan on performing routine moisture content tests on the drying tower discharge to understand if the tower is performing optimally.” With the recent re-start of the plant at the end of August, Langeloth feels the problem of sulfates has been eliminated.

Although cast iron piping remains in the drain line and the transport lines for acid out of the plant down to the storage tanks, acid that has passed through those pipes does not return to the towers. “We do feel that we have eliminated the potential for sulfates in the towers from this plant. We are also investigating the potential for the sulfuric acid to seek the iron from other sources. Anodic protection of the carbon steel storage tanks may be in the future,” Himmel said. “Our tanks store 93.5 percent acid and are the original 1977 vintage tanks—we inspect them on an annual basis with visual and thickness testing. The reason the tanks have lasted this long is because we vary the levels in the tank almost constantly. On a typical day, we will have 10 to 12 acid trucks come in here loading up on acid.”

timing and safety With acid plant uptime a priority, the project had a tight deadline. With an impressive amount of work to be done, many contractors involved and an ongoing commitment to safety, meeting that deadline was not an easy task. “The shutdown was planned for an eight-week outage. We replaced all three brick-lined towers—drying, interpass and final—with MECS ZeCor alloy towers; replaced all the major duct work; and replaced all the strong acid piping up to the product holding tank with ZeCor. We also performed normal maintenance on the humidifying tower, the cooling tower, wet precipitators and converter. We had VIP International of Baton Rouge, La., screen all three converter

catalyst beds. We screened 100 precent on the first bed and half on the second bed and third bed. We replaced the catalyst with any screening losses we had,” said Gene Petcovic, project manager for acid plant rebuild, Huth Technologies. VIP International was contracted to provide the catalyst screening service, the demolition of the drying, final and interpass towers; outfitting the new alloy towers with packing; installing the ZeCor UniFlow distributor; and installing the demister elements and pads. Even though there were many challenges presented with tight deadlines and multiple trades being performed simultaneously, all the services were performed efficiently, safely and ahead of schedule.” That’s not to say that there were no hiccups in the plan, but bringing in specialized contractors helped smooth out the kinks. “We were ahead of schedule until about the middle of the project where we had some piping weld issues. We called in The Roberts Company of Winterville, N.C., to help us with the ZeCor field welds and they were able to help us save our schedule,” said Petcovic. “Overall, I think the project went well.” The Roberts Company performed over 60 ZeCor pipe field welds on an expedited 24-hour schedule to help Langeloth accelerate the turnaround.

Safety is a priority With a project of this magnitude, involving both plant staff and contractors, safety is always a top priority. “At one point during the project, we had manpower of nearly 120 individuals in a tight area. We chose contractors who we knew from previous experience. We met daily to discuss the status of the project, conflicts and coordination issues. We started each meeting with a safety discussion. This helped to keep everyone up to speed and gave us a chance to deal with small problems before they became large problems,” said Himmel. For Langeloth, this vigilance paid off. “There were no safety issues for this project,” Himmel said. “In fact, we are currently 667 straight days without an OSHA recordable. This is the longest time span that we have had between recordables. We are very pleased with this.”

looking ahead Even as this project was finishing up, plant personnel were looking ahead to future capital improvements. Langeloth currently operates six vertical roasters–the majority of them dedicated to molybdenum processing. The company hopes to convert all of them to molybdenum oxide roasting. De-bottlenecking the acid plant to the point where it will easily accept all the off-gases for six running at one time will then become a priority. “With the installation of the new towers we have eliminated them as a bottleneck,” Himmel said. “The primary reason for that, although they are virtually the same diameter as the old towers, was we eliminated the brick wall. The brick wall created another thickness to the tower which effectively gave you a smaller diameter tower, so we increased the capacity of towers by just going with the alloy tanks.” The next bottleneck is the wet precipitators, which can’t handle the full load that would be achieved with the six roasters. After the wet precipitators, the next bottleneck is gas cleaning section–the humidification tower and the cooling tower. Plant personnel will also need to address the deterioration of the sulfur burner and the sulfur storage tank. “These will be the next two major capital investments we will make at this plant,” Himmel said. “Once those are changed out and running up to speed, will we look at the precipitators. This all geared to a point where we can run the six roasters here at this facility.”q

Ductwork being installed on the new cold pass heat exchanger.

Mist eliminator elements being installed in the new final tower. Note they are being installed through the side access door for easier access with the platform at that level.


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firetube boiler Specifications for the fabrication of a firetube boiler indicate a partial penetration J-groove and fillet weld for the tube-to-tubesheet joint and QA inspection after welding by the boiler designer and engineering design company. The fabricator prepared the tubesheet according to the specifications and proceeded with welding the tube-to-tubesheet joint. The completed boiler passed inspections by the boiler designer and engineering design company. It also passed a hydrotest at the fabricator’s shop. About 48 hours after startup of the acid plant, water level in the steam drum dropped and became difficult to maintain, so the plant was shut down. The firetube boiler had a leak and the cause of the leak was the tube-to-tubesheet joint. Forensic investigation revealed the tube-to-tubesheet joint was mostly fillet weld and the J-groove was bridged with weld and not completely filled. Lesson Learned: Always place QA hold point for the inspection of the root pass weld and performance of non-destructive testing prior to deposition of successive weld layers.

Superheater A steam superheater was specified by an engineering design company to be installed inside a converter for process gas cooling between catalyst beds. The design specifications called for the finned tubes at the header end to be fixed, while those at the rear end would slide. The steam piping was equipped with a by-pass line for process gas temperature control to the next catalyst bed. During commissioning and performance testing, the temperature of the process gas was higher than specified despite the by-pass valve already being fully closed. Review of the design and fabrication drawings for the superheater and converter revealed that process gas was by-passing the finned tubes through the tube holes of the return-end tube support. Lesson Learned: Superheaters for installation inside a converter should be provided with a shroud at the return end of the finned tubes to prevent process gas from short circuiting to the next catalyst bed.

gate valve bonnet gasket During a five-year internal inspection of an oleum storage tank, the block valve

at the outlet piping was replaced with a gate valve. The valve was bought as per best practices specifications from a valve manufacturer, then sent to a shop for actuator fitting. The valve was installed; a few days after filling up the storage tank with oleum, a leak with white smoke (acid mist) was noticed coming out of the newly installed gate valve. The storage tank was emptied and after investigated it was found that the leak originated at the bonnet gasketed joint and the gasket had been chemically attacked. Apparently, the valve manufacturer did not follow the best practices specifications and installed a grafoil gasket instead. Lesson Learned: Never use gaskets with carbon or graphite filler as this will be chemically attacked by SO3.

acid pipeline An acid pipeline transferring fresh acid from a storage tank to the barge loading area more than a mile and a half away was found to have sections of the pipeline dislodged from the pipe rack by maintenance on a daily inspection round. Fortunately no breakage of the pipeline resulted. The eight-inch pipeline is constructed from stainless steel and equipped with expansion loops to accommodate thermal expansion. The dislodged sections were mostly at the expansion loops located close to the transfer pump. The transfer pump piping from the floor of the storage tank is equipped with an internal plug valve and block valves in the discharge and suction lines, as well as a block-valve-equipped recirculation line back into the storage tank. The investigation indicates that thermal expansion did not cause the pipeline to dislodge; rather it was liquid hammer from improper start up of the transfer pump. Lesson Learned: Always start a pump with the discharge block valve partially opened and the recirculation line block valve fully opened to prevent liquid hammer. Once flow is established and the pump is stable, open the discharge valve fully while closing the recirculation valve.

Precipitator explosion Wet electrostatic precipitators are used in the gas cleaning section of spent acid regeneration and metallurgical plants. The precipitators remove essentially all of the sulfuric acid mist and ash particulates, preventing downstream corrosion and plugging, with low power consumption and pressure drop. Because of the high voltage charge, however, electrical sparks occur within the unit, making the equipment an ignition source. This can cause major fires and explosions if unburned hydrocarbon and oxygen are present.

Such an incident happened in a spent-acid regeneration plant during a cold startup. Multiple attempts to light a natural gas burner failed, with no air purging, accumulating unburned gas in the two precipitator cells. Because the precipitators were energized, a spark caused an explosion, destroying both precipitators and associated structures. Fortunately no injuries resulted, but the plant was out of commission for several months, until the unit was re-commissioned with new precipitators. Lesson Learned: Use a PLC-based combustion safeguard system, with adequate purging between fuel lighting attempts. Keep the precipitators de-energized until furnace conditions allow complete combustion of hydrocarbon.

Watch that pressure drop Contaminants such as particulates, mist, moisture and iron sulfate accumulate in acid plants, and increase pressure drop in equipment over time. Pressure drop increases power consumption in the main gas blower and may lead to reduced throughput for the plant. When the pressure drop exceeds the mechanical design, equipment damage can occur. Pressure drop incidents have occurred in the acid industry, including: —solids accumulation in the process gas side of waste heat boilers restricting plant throughpu —solids accumulation upstream of tubular lead precipitators, collapsing tubes; —plugging of candle mist eliminators atop drying towers causing tubesheet damage and/or ducting collapse (if main gas blower is downstream) —pressure drop increase in fixed bed converters, causing partial damage or collapse of beds —pressure drop increase in drying and absorbing tower packing causing excessive acid entrainment, if not bumping and shattering of ceramic packin —pressure drop increase in cold heat exchangers causing restrictions in throughput and heat transfe —blower suction and discharge increases, causing surges and equipment failure. Lessons Learned: Establish a safe pressure drop and static pressure limit for each piece of equipment. Measure and trend the pressure profile in the acid plant routinely, at least once a month. Place an alarm or interlock in critical areas to prevent equipment damage. The above Lessons Learned submissions were provided by OP & Associates - H2SO4 Consultants Ltd. For more information please contact Orlando Perez at (604) 807-2148 or [email protected]. q

Lessons Learned Case histories from the Sulfuric acid industry

Difficult situations lead to lessons learned


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Call on a Company with:

— Over 140 full-time, trained employees

— Over 970 total years of Sulfuric Acid Maintenance experience

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Questions about your nex

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Questions about your nex

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Over the past two years, NORAM has designed and supplied a number of replacement acid towers and a pump tank for four plant upgrade projects to a large African fertilizer producer. Each project was comprised of at least two large diameter acid towers.

Materials: An acid plant owner has two choices when selecting the material of construction for replacement acid towers: brick-lined or silicon containing alloy. These

material options apply to elevations in the tower below that of the acid distributor. Above the acid distributor, 316L stainless steel is the recommended material of construction.

Brick lined: For three of the replacement acid towers, the owner selected brick lining. This material has the advantage of being able to tolerate a wide range of acid concentrations and temperatures. The disadvantage is that a long time is required for bricking. There is also the challenge in finding qualified tradesmen. For the first project, the plant had been shut down for an extended time and it was feasible to tear down the old towers, erect new shells and brick line in situ.

Silicon containing alloys: The other replacement towers and the pump tank were for operating plants where downtime was the deciding factor. In these plants, alloy towers became the option selected by the owner. The downtime required for a brick lined tower, where bricking and curing can add four weeks to the shutdown, was not acceptable. Alloy towers are less tolerant to excursions in acid strength and temperature and may experience localized corrosion when operated outside the specified process envelope. However, alloy towers are much lighter than brick lined towers and are more easily lifted into place.

Packing: A bit of a commercial plug here–the owner selected NORAM’s low pressure-drop HP™ packing for all towers. This packing offers low pressure drop and potentially increased plant capacity. At one plant, 300 tpd extra production was achieved by selecting the HP™ packing.

African skies sport new acid towersBy: Guy Cooper, Director, Sulfuric Acid Business Group, NORAM Engineering and Constructors Ltd.

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Acid Mist Ad - Sulfuric Acid Today 2011:Layout 1 8/30/11 11:57 PM Page 1This alloy tower support grid will sport NORAM’s low pressure-drop HP™ packing.

Easier to install than their brick lined cousins, alloy towers such as these are lighter and require less down time.


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Distributor: Alloy material was selected for the distributors. The towers in the first project were fitted with alloy trough distributors. Subsequent towers used the NORAM Smart™ acid pipe distributors in alloy construction. The Smart™ acid distributors allow cleanout of the distributor without tower entry, a very desirable safety feature.

Mist elimination: Last in the process line, but not least in importance in tower performance, are the mist eliminators. If the tower diameter, acid distributor, packing type and depth as well as process conditions are correctly selected, the mist eliminators should have an easy job. Nonetheless, the mist eliminator selection is important. For these towers, the mist eliminators were of either the impaction candle-style or the Brownian diffusion style.

Wrap up: Over a two-year period, NORAM has supplied a significant number of large-diameter acid towers and a pump tank for four acid plant upgrade projects, each component custom-designed in accordance with the owners’ specifications. Included in the supply were the necessary gas ducting and acid piping as well as the engineering associated with the installation. And we like to think that the African skies are a little clearer now with these high quality NORAM acid towers.

NORAM specializes in the supply of new and replacement acid plant equipment. For more information, contact Guy Cooper, P. Eng., at (604) 696-6910 or [email protected]. q

Trough distributor made with alloy material. External acid dilution system installed in field. NORAM’s Smart™ acid distributor supports safe cleaning by eliminating the need to enter the tower.


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and running. “This solution is allowing us to run at maximum rates and we have been up and running ever since the installation,” Ashworth said. The plant is currently running at approximately 60 tons per hour burn rate at 4,400 tons per day. “This process is buying us time until we can get a replacement exchanger,” Ashworth said. And both he and Hall are very pleased with results. q

Fouled tubes in a cold pass heat exchanger are bad enough, but when tubes actually fail, the problem goes from serious to critical. In the past the only solution was to plug leaking tubes until so many tubes were plugged the equipment must be replaced. However, when cross flow issues in Minara Resources’ cold interpass heat exchanger started significantly reducing the company’s sulfuric acid production, Minara partnered with VIP International of Baton Rouge, La., to develop an innovative solution. Minara, based in Perth, Western Australia, relies on sulfuric acid in its nickel and cobalt mining and refining operation located in the northern goldfields region between the towns of Leonora and Laverton. Minara was well aware of the issues with its cold interpass HX-19 heat exchanger and had a new heat exchanger on order. But because Minara’s equipment is so large, the lead-time on replacing it was well over 12 months. A repair needed to be executed that could last at least 18 months. “We have one of the largest exchangers of its type,” Wayne Ashworth, general manager at Minara explained, “with roughly 3,762 tubes of about 10 meters each.” And the problem was that a significant portion of the tubes ruptured and became fouled with sulfates.

“What happened was that a ruptured steam jacket on the sulfur guns went unnoticed and breached the tubes of the cold heat exchanger,” John Hall, Minara manager, utilities maintenance said. This event then caused the bypass that affected the company’s production rates. Minara couldn’t wait for a replacement exchanger; they needed an immediate intermediary solution. At this point, the company consulted with VIP International. VIP first inspected the exchanger and found many tubes plugged with hard sulfates. “There was a video inspection of the inside of the tubes to verify where the corrosion was,” said Ashworth. “As expected, the tubes had failed close to the bottom of the exchanger, about three to four inches from the bottom tube sheet.” VIP then proposed a three-part repair strategy: Step 1. Clear all the plugged tubes and open partially plugged tubes via mechanical tube cleaning equipment. VIP International has an arsenal of equipment and techniques to clean fouled tubes. Pluggage can range in consistency from peanut butter to concrete and the condition cannot be predicted. “We used drills with custom bits on the hardest material,” Bubba Miller, Director of VIP International said. “After a pilot hole is opened we can use more conventional tools.”

Step 2. Prepare the tube ID with tungsten carbide cutter for a close tolerance fit with the tube sleeves. Since the tolerance in a sleeving operation is critical, proper dressing of the tube and sizing of the sleeve is essential. Step 3. Install stainless steel sleeves about 20 inches long into the tubes. Material selection and implementing the strategy took careful planning. “We had approximately four months in trials,” Hall said. “We trialed and tested different insertion methods and ultimately decided on the compression insertion and in-situ rolling,” he explained. “VIP was involved in the pre-installation trials on the rolling of the tubes,” Hall continued. VIP fashioned models and experimented with different methods in Baton Rouge while results were verified in Australia. “It was a team effort,” Miller explained. “Communication and co operation was excellent every step of the way.” The company also had their share of backup plans. “We had many contingencies in place,” Ashworth said. “We went in with the idea that some tubes might be worse than others, so when we did hit hard spots we had a plan B, a plan C, and a plan D.” With all the trials and backup plans, the work was completed within the budgeted time frame. The installation itself took only eight days. Most importantly, the plant is up

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construction— Grassroots/Expansion Projects— Design/Build Projects — Plant Services — Total E&I Services— Plant Turnaround/ Maintenance— Structural Steel Erection & Concrete Placement— Process Piping Installation

Fabrication/construction contact:The Roberts Company133 Forlines RoadWinterville, North Carolina 28590Phone: (252) 355-9353Fax: (252) 756-7018www.robertscompany.com

EnginEEring contact:Professional Project Services3100 Smoketree Court, Suite 800Raleigh, North Carolina 27604 Phone: (919) 526-1300Fax: (919) 526-1301www.ppsengineers.com

Minara’s gas-to-gas exchanger is one of the largest of its type in the world with approximately 3,762 tubes and over 30 feet in length.

Proper PPE, s p e c i a l i z e d equipment, VIP International’s experience and a joint venture att itude was attributed to the success of the repair.


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Acid Piping Technology — The world leader in reliable and cost effective products for the sulfuric acid industry since 1991

Acid PiPing Technology Acid Piping Technology • 2890 Arnold Tenbrook Road • Arnold, Missouri 63010 USA

Telephone: (636) 296-4668 • Fax: (636) 296-1824 • Email: [email protected] • Website: www.acidpiping.com

MONDI™ Piping Systems – Special ductile iron alloy for 92-99% sulfuric acid at temperatures up to 300 degrees F (149 degrees C). Unique alloy and heavy wall construction provide 20-plus years of reliable service. APT step ring gaskets provide leak-free seal in hot acid.

• Proven performance in acid plants since 1983 for recirculation and transfer systems• Tough sulfate film formed results in low corrosion rates• Good tolerance to weaker acid excursions due to process upset or shutdown conditions• Industry standard used in over 800 acid systems worldwide including World Class 4500+ ton per day plants• APT maintains large inventory of pipe and fittings for routine and emergency requirements

Valves & Instrumentation – Valves are gate, globe, check, plug, ball and butterfly in iron, steel, bronze, stainless steels, alloy or lined with PTFE, PFA, and FEP. Valves are supplied in class 125 psi through 2500 psi. APT has a complete automation facility for valve actuation to supply complete automated package.

Instrumentation products include thermocouples, RTD, thermowells, orifice plates, pressure and temperature gauges.

APT High Performance Ceramics – High quality products which meet ASTM C-279 chemical porcelain. Products have excellent chemical resistance, high mechanical strength and low porosity.

• Tower packing saddle sizes in 3”, 2”, 1 1/2”, 1”, 3/4”, 1/2” and #1, #2. #3, Super Saddles• Cross Partition Rings, Grid Blocks and Ceramic Balls• APT maintains large inventory of saddles and supports for routine and emergency requirements

ASC Acid Plant Valves --- Have been supplied to acid plants for gas duct applications since 1993. These valves are used for many applications within the plant. There valves can have manual gear operators or actuators.• Butterfly valves (BV – metal step 1 percent leakage) for flow control around towers, equipment and heat exchangers• Powercam® BV valves (ANSI Class IV – 0.01 percent leakage) for preheater isolation• Flex-Wedge valves for blower isolation• Refractory BV and Jug valve used on boiler by-pass for flow control

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WINTERVILLE, N.C.—The Roberts Company provides fully integrated engineering, fabrication and field services. The Roberts Company engineering group, Professional Project Services (PPS), in Raleigh, has extensive capabilities to meet all your engineering needs. PPS is a full-service project solutions group that provides turnkey engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) services, front end engineering and design (FEED), and design/build for grass roots projects or plant upgrades. The Roberts Company Fabrication Services Division in Winterville, can meet all of a customer’s process equipment needs including pressure vessels, heat exchangers (fabrication and rebuilds), towers, columns and piping. The Roberts Company

offers unlimited steel and alloy plate fabrication services specializing in stainless steel and exotic alloy custom complex ASME code pressure vessels and heat exchangers. The Roberts Company also manufactures to international standards as required. The Roberts Company delivers alloy fabrications by truck, rail, or ship anywhere in the world. If an item is too large to ship whole, the Fabrication Services Division also field erects shop fabricated components wherever the customer is located. The Roberts Company Field Services Division, with offices throughout the southeastern United States, can meet all of a customer’s construction, project, maintenance and turnaround needs. The Roberts Company can provide experienced craftsmen for projects involving civil,

concrete, structural, equipment installation, rigging, electrical, instrumentation, piping and tanks. Some current projects of interest include:—Professional Project Services and The Roberts Company Field Services Division are finishing up a large EPC project that will

allow the client to recover more phosphate ore.—The Roberts Company Fabrication Services Division completed a MECS ZeCor® sulfuric acid tower mist eliminator section for a client in Texas. The tower sections were shop fabricated and assembled on site.

—The Roberts Company Fabrication Services Division has started fabrication on a MECS ZeCor Acid Cooler for a client in Florida. The ZeCor Cooler eliminates the need for anodic protection.—The Roberts Company Fabrication Services Division also finished a rush job for two sets of MECS Uni-Flo® ZeCor acid distributors for a plant that was down due to damaged tower internals (see Fig. 1).—The Roberts Company Field Services and The Roberts Company Fabrication Services Division are working together to field assemble and install two new stainless steel converters and ductwork in a sulfuric acid plant. For more information, contact The Roberts Company at (252) 355-9353 or visit www.robertscompany.com. q

• Design and Fabrication of Sulphuric Acid Coolers, Gas to Gas Heat Exchangers, Super Cathodes and Reference Electrodes• Specializing in Anodic protection for acid coolers, piping and storage tanks• Anodically protected shell and tube sulphuric acid coolers with innovative technology• Open concept PLC-controlled Anodic protection systems with non-proprietary components used

for acid coolers, storage tanks, and stainless steel piping• Supplying of spare parts, refurbished equipment and an inventory of rescue units of Anodic

protection equipment• Inspection of acid coolers, storage tanks and piping, combined with our

Eddy Current Testing for Complete Turnkey Turnaround Crew Services• Inspection and servicing of Anodic protection equipment• Consultation, classroom training and troubleshooting• Over 50 years of combined experience in the H2SO4 industry

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Email: [email protected]: www.mercad.com

Our Products and Services Include:

Mercad Equipment Inc. is your universal source for new equipment, spare parts, tube plugging kits, inspections

and emergency support of anodically protected sulphuric acid equipment.

H2So4Ad-Sept2012.indd 1 26/09/12 4:11 PM

The Roberts Company serves clients worldwide

Fig. 1: The Roberts Company completed these MECS Uni-Flo® ZeCor® Acid Distributors on a rush basis for a plant that was down due to damaged tower internals.


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Throughout 2012, the global sulfuric acid market has been in balance because of stable demand and pockets of tight supply, mostly driven by operational issues, mirroring conditions seen in 2011. As the fourth quarter begins, the focus is on the outlook for next year in terms of pricing and the overall balance. In 2011, about 225 million metric tons of sulfuric acid were produced with 2012 annual production expected to be up by 5 percent or less. Around 60 percent of sulfuric acid produced is through the burning of elemental sulfur for onsite consumption. The key consumers of sulfur-based supply are phosphate fertilizer producers and there is growing demand for onsite sulfur-based sulfuric acid production to support metal leach projects. In the future, sulfuric acid production from elemental sulfur will account for a larger proportion of total production. Approximately 90 percent of global sulfur production goes towards the production of sulfuric acid, which means the sulfur and sulfuric acid markets are becoming increasingly linked. Outside of the 60 percent of sulfuric acid production that is derived from sulfur, 30 percent is involuntarily produced as generally an unwanted by-product of the base metals smelting industry. The balance is produced through pyrite roasting (8 percent), mostly in China, and spent acid regeneration (2 percent). For phosphate producers, phosphoric acid is a key raw material in the production of phosphate fertilizer end products including diammonium phosphate (DAP), monoammonium phosphate (MAP) and triple super phosphate (TSP). To produce phosphoric acid, sulfuric acid is mixed with phosphate rock to break it down. As of press time, prices for DAP were about $550/metric ton FOB (free on board) in all regions. By comparison, DAP prices were about $600/metric ton FOB during the same time period in 2011. Stable prices along with healthy demand is putting pressure on phosphate fertilizer producers to run facilities at high rates, creating the need for sustained sulfur purchases. As a result, the global sulfur market is tight. In response, the sulfur market was in a deficit in 2010 and 2011 and the same is expected for 2012. This has meant a corresponding reaction in sulfur prices. As of September 2012, the spot sulfur price in China, the world’s largest importer, was just under $200/metric ton CFR (cost and freight) compared with just under $240/metric ton CFR in September 2011. While China imports almost all of its sulfur from offshore markets, U.S. producers rely on sulfur produced in North America. The main U.S. price benchmark is the price into Tampa, Fla., where the majority of phosphate fertilizer is produced because of rich phosphate rock deposits. In 2011, the Tampa sulfur price ranged from $160-220/long metric ton and between the first and third quarters of 2012, it ranged between $170-180/long metric ton del. As of press time, the fourth quarter price was under negotiation. In comparison, the Tampa sulfur price was at an all-time low of $0(zero)/long metric ton del in the first quarter of 2009, proving a robust recovery since the global financial crisis. There are also a significant number of sulfuric acid producers who also use sulfur as feedstock, whose business is at least partly to sell sulfuric acid into the merchant market. Therefore, increases in sulfur prices are customarily passed on to sulfuric acid buyers. In the price graph, it is important to note that generally one metric ton of sulfur yields three metric tons of sulfuric acid, which is why the Brazil sulfuric acid price is lower

than the sulfur prices presented, although as the graph displays, the two prices do closely follow one another. Looking beyond 2012, demand for sulfuric acid from the fertilizer sector to support phosphate fertilizer production will increase because of the need to produce more fertilizer to help feed a growing population with improving dietary needs. At the same time, sulfur supply is expected to increase as large scale projects related to oil refining and natural gas processing come on stream. Projects such as the Shah gas field in Abu Dhabi are a key example of this. The project, slated to come on stream in 2014, will have a production capacity of about 3 million metric tons/year of sulfur. With the expected increase in availability of sulfur in 2014 and beyond, operations that require significant amounts of sulfuric acid are opting to develop internal sulfur-based production capacities, rather than rely on purchasing from the merchant market, which is driven by smelter by-product production. Recent price volatility as well as availability of smelter acid have driven consumers to move away from the merchant market. Not only does this approach secure supply, but by-product energy is also produced through sulfur burning, providing another economic benefit to producers. This shift in supply is contributing to the trend for sulfur and sulfuric acid prices becoming increasingly linked. Sulfuric acid production from base metals smelting will increase overall, driven in part by legislation that requires limits on sulfur dioxide emissions from smelters, but will account for a smaller proportion of total supply compared with historic levels. Acid production from the roasting of pyrites will form a small but relatively stable portion of global acid production as a result of China’s ability (100 facilities) to roast pyrites to obtain acid when global market prices for acid or sulfur are too high. Roasting of pyrites has been eliminated in most other regions because of environmental concerns surrounding the process. The amount of sulfuric acid produced through the spent acid regeneration process will remain stagnant and is considered “recycled” supply as it is returned to the original producer for its consumption. With limitations on the storage and transportation of sulfuric acid, consumption closely matches production. Essentially the market must balance itself, particularly given that traded sulfuric acid is frequently an unwanted by-product of another process. Sulfuric acid that is traded in the industrial sector is primarily 30 percent of global production from base metals smelting. It is this trade that drives the sulfuric acid market and sets prices. Since these consumer requirements are generally not as great as that of phosphate fertilizer producers, there is little justification for the development and use of sulfur-based sulfuric acid plants. These consumers therefore rely on the acid traded in the market. However, there is a changing trend in the metal ore leaching sector. Depending on geographic location and

composition of ore bodies, a metal producer can either consume sulfuric acid to produce metal cathodes through a leaching process, or smelt concentrates which produces sulfuric acid as an involuntary by-product. The prevalence of ore leaching projects is growing and with sulfuric acid requirements closely matching the same ratio of sulfuric acid produced through smelting–three to four metric tons to one metric ton of metal–many are turning to sulfur-based supply because of the significant volume required. Plant and smelter outages are of course a risk for those that produce sulfuric acid either voluntarily or involuntarily. Mechanical issues can also affect sulfur supply to sulfur-based plants. Operational issues at refineries/gas plants or logistic issues can impact the movement of sulfur. Political instability and government restrictions can also have an impact on production, as well as demand. Events in 2008 and 2009 perfectly illustrate the impact global economic conditions can have on the sulfuric acid market. Because it’s a liquid material, sulfuric acid is generally traded as close to the source as possible. However, where domestic demand is not great enough to support production, seaborne trade is required to balance the market. It is these movements that set global prices. Only 7 percent of global sulfuric acid production is traded between countries and 5 percent is traded by sea. Europe, South Korea and Japan are the largest suppliers to the global market as this is where smelting capacity is concentrated. In these regions there is significant by-product sulfuric acid produced without demand to match. Chile is the largest importer of sulfuric acid to support copper leaching. Chile’s sulfuric acid import requirements may now be peaking as it has been adding sulfur-based supply to secure consumption requirements. After Chile, the Asia/Oceanic region (excluding China) is the largest importing region, primarily to support metal leaching projects. China has now replaced the United States as the swing importer of surplus smelter acid from Japan and South Korea. The United States is now more influenced by local supply–there is more production domestically and supply being imported from Canada and Mexico, which has resulted in less need for offshore imports. Beyond 2012, there is no significant change expected for the sulfur or sulfuric acid markets although both increased production and consumption are expected. As contract price discussions for 2013 commence, talks are centered around specific needs by region. As mentioned, there are indications that Chile’s import requirement is peaking as it produces more domestically from sulfur. This is a concern for major suppliers, such as South Korea and Japan. However, at the same time new sources of demand are emerging, such as a nickel leach project in the Philippines that will consume merchant acid rather than produce its own requirement from sulfur. In light of a stable market and little change in supply/demand on the horizon, prices are widely expected to stay comparable going into the new year absent of any significant economic downturn. Argus FMB publishes a global report on sulfur and a North American-focused publication that includes in-depth analysis of the domestic sulfur and sulfuric acid markets. By the end of 2012, Argus FMB will launch a standalone global sulfuric acid report. For more information on Argus and its portfolio of fertilizer publications, please visit www.argusmedia.com/fertilizer. q

MARKET OUTLOOK

Global sulfuric acid market – 2012 and beyondBy: Fiona Boyd, Editor, North American Sulfur, for Argus Media; Edited by: Lauren Williamson, Editor, North American Fertilizer for Argus Media


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Being in my twenty-second year in this industry and staring down retirement, I find myself looking back and considering my past experiences. It seems like a very short time ago that I first began my association with Weir Mineral Lewis Pumps, then known as Charles S. Lewis and Co. Reviewing this tenure, plus my previous background with centrifugal pump manufacturers in general, I find many of the old adages still true today. So I cast my farewell sharing some parting thoughts and personal experiences.

non-oeM spare parts really do not save money Even though I made much of my livelihood selling spares, I highly recommend that you purchase from the original manufacturer. This is the only means you have to be assured you are not only providing the proper function for your plant, but also that materials are correct and manufacturing tolerances are guaranteed. As with most original equipment manufacturers, we do occasionally see major components replicated (a.k.a. pirated) with varying degrees of quality and sold as replacement parts. This can include something as simple as a shaft, to more complex cast parts including volutes and impellers. The problem here, beyond the simple issue of physical fit, is performance. A slight change in geometry can translate to a large drop in efficiency and a corresponding rise in power usage that affects motor and switch gear sizing. In sulfuric acid applications, the selection of materials is critical and the materials that are commercially available to a replicator may be totally inappropriate for the intended service. Ball bearings, for example, are usually targeted for outsourcing. It is easy to locate dimensionally interchangeable bearings, but proper function and product life are highly dependent on factors that are not necessarily easy to see. At Weir Minerals Lewis Pumps, we use maximum capacity, double row, shielded ball

bearings that are manufactured to C3 fit. Although these ball bearings are not proprietary, they often are not locally available to a customer. I do recall an occasion when a plant engineer of a long-time customer in India chastised me severely for not redesigning our pumps to allow him to buy bearings locally. To date, we have not satisfied him in this regard. Even more basic is the use of gaskets. So what’s the big deal here? Are gaskets not common items that can be made on site? Again, materials and fit (not to mention thickness) are everything. The thickness of a gasket, considering how many there are in a pump, can make the difference as to whether the gaskets fit back together properly without transmitting undue strain on component parts. Proper materials are extremely significant. A good example is the fact that we use a 15-25 percent glass-filled Teflon® gasket on either side of our pump discharge elbow. It is commonplace for an owner to purchase or fashion virgin Teflon gaskets for this purpose. But without the glass filling, the Teflon will exhibit a phenomenon known as “cold flow,” which will render the seal ineffective. In sulfuric acid applications, breaking the gasket seal results in leaks at this joined area. Such leaks are slight at first, but will often continually increase. Eventually this could lead to velocity-accelerated corrosion that causes needless failure in expensive parts, all for small monetary savings. One notable example of this was in an acid plant in Malaysia. I was visiting the plant, fielding complaints from the plant engineer about our pump parts failing early. We were walking around their maintenance area when I mentioned that they were not purchasing gaskets from us and how the use of gaskets we provide would help solve his problem. Just as he responded in disagreement we came upon a member of his crew toiling over a large sheet of Teflon with a chisel, fabricating a gasket. This suppressed his argument substantially and proved my point about the importance of using proper gaskets.

it’s all (or-mostly) about the environment Unwanted moisture in a pump tank is the nemesis of any acid circulation pump. Moisture can be introduced by a failure in the water dilution system or ingress of ambient air. In either case, a stratification of weak acid can form at the liquid surface, very quickly causing severe localized corrosion of the suspended pump parts. Too often this weak acid layer is only detected when the pump fails and serious acid plant downtime (plus a panicked request for repair parts) is impending.

Quite often the culprit is an acid tank kept under a vacuum as a means to prevent the escape of SO3 gas. This seems to be a good idea until the reality of the unintended consequences comes to the forefront. A vacuum coupled with an open tank vent or sampling port provides a path for humid ambient air to enter the tank. The hydroscopic nature of sulfuric acid effectively absorbs the moisture at the pumping level, which can cause a thin weak acid layer that severely corrodes the exposed pump parts. Even if the tank is not vented, it is quite common for pump damage to occur by means of humid air entering the interior of the shaft column through the packing,

causing corrosion and an iron sulpfate build-up. The build-up can increase to the point where it bridges across and comes in contact with the PTFE shaft cover. Once this happens, the shaft can be irreparably damaged. I have seen this type of pump damage in many installations in Asia to the extent where several pumps had the column piping totally severed. One pump in particular continued to run smoothly while hanging by the discharge pipe only–a true testament to our rugged pump design. Externally mounted pumps are not immune to weak acid problems either. I have witnessed similar corrosion inside the shaft column piping that was a result of the moisture being drawn in through the pump packing because of a vacuum.

When all else fails, read the instructions Beyond initial installation, one of the very few means of pump maintenance is periodic lubrication of ball bearings. As mentioned earlier, we use a double row, maximum capacity ball bearing with shields on both sides. With this configuration, it is necessary to follow a prescribed means of grease lubrication..In the Weir Minerals Lewis Pumps design, there are four grease ports, two each located 180 degrees apart above and below the ball bearing. A new pump is pre-lubricated with plugs installed at each of the four ports. Our recommendation is to remove all plugs and insert a grease fitting into one port on the top and one port on the bottom, then to apply grease to both until it comes out the other side. It is a common occurrence that maintenance technicians insert a grease fitting in both the upper and lower positions while leaving the opposite plugs installed. They keep applying grease to that one fitting, which results in over-greasing (yes a bearing can actually be over-greased). In this scenario, which I have seen in a multitude of acid plants, the grease actually can apply so much pressure that the bearing seals collapse. This is probably the most common

cause of premature ball bearing failure for which the replacement requires the pump to be removed and dismantled. Packing and its proper installation, or lack thereof, can be another issue. I recall one instance in India where a pump, after many years of operation, was noted to have damage to the shaft cover due to sulphation inside the shaft column piping. The plant operator admitted that the packing had never been installed. In the Weir Minerals Lewis Pumps design, the packing is always dry and is put in place as a vapor barrier, with the idea that it keeps SO3 vapor inside the tank and moisture out. Without packing, exposure of the pump to rainwater also can cause problems.

you really are out there on your own Rarely will you visit a plant, regardless of the purpose, when you will be equipped with the necessary tools to perform whatever duty the plant owner perceives as the purpose of your visit. Maintenance literature and videos do not suffice for hands-on pump repair when the only available tools are an assortment of hammers. I remember needing emery cloth in one situation to “clean up” a minor cosmetic repair, only to realize that those words do not translate well into the local language. As I prepare to retire and leave the sulfuric acid industry behind, I think back on my adventures at customer facilities with fondness and a bit of good humor. I have seen my share of complications and have done my best to help customers overcome them. The best advice I can give to those customers would be to always buy OEM parts, always follow the instructions for pump maintenance provided by the OEM, and when you send a driver to the airport to pick up an English-speaking pump engineer who is coming to fix your problems, always include a sign with the pump engineer’s name in English. For more information, please visit the company’s website www.weirminerals.com. q

Common problems in sulfuric acid installations By: Ron Roche, Acid Projects Manager

An open vent drew moist air into the acid tank, creating weak acid corrosion that nearly severed the pump boot.

Moist air drawn in through the packing causes resultant build-up inside the pump boot.

GUEST COLUMN


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The central importance of copper production to the Zambian economy is reflected in the fact that the value of cop-per exports in 2010, about $5.8 billion, accounted for 78 percent of the coun-try’s total merchandise export earnings, and helped make it the seventh largest producer in the world. Capitalizing on a worldwide surge in copper prices and the coincident privatization of Zambia’s mining industries in 2000, the corpo-rate owners of the Mopani Copper Mine in Zambia’s mineral-rich Copperbelt Province began upgrading both produc-tion capacity and environmental control technologies. In 2007 the Mopani operators engaged a former engineering subsidiary of Mon-santo, Inc., to enlarge and modernize their sulfuric acid plant, which was designed to capture and commercialize industrial-quality sulfuric acid from off-gases pro-duced by the mine’s smelting and refining operations. To maximize gas cleaning effi-ciency before gases enter the acid plant, the firm contracted with Beltran Technologies, Inc., of Brooklyn, NY, who designed and

constructed two wet electrostatic precipita-tors (WESPs) at the site. The Mopani copper smelter and re-finery in the town of Mufulira utilizes pyrometallurgical processes, which pro-duce high levels of sulfur dioxide, sul-furic acid mists, particulates and other emissions originating from the metallic concentrate. Zambia’s Ministry of Mines and Minerals Development has required the facility to reduce acid mists by 94 percent and particulates by 99.5 percent. The sulfuric acid plant, coupled with Beltran’s advanced WESP technology, has achieved these stringent reductions, accepting a load of 11 kg/hr of sulfuric acid mists while producing 244 metric tons per day of clean, commercially vi-able sulfuric acid product. Before entering the acid plant’s dry-ing tower, smelter and refinery off-gases must be cleaned of sulfuric acid mists, particulates and other impurities in order to prevent corrosion, fouling and plug-ging in downstream compressors, cata-lyst beds and other sensitive equipment, and to avoid the formation of a “black” or

contaminated sulfuric acid end product. Mopani had reverse jet scrubbers but these alone were not effective on acid mists and fumes. The Beltran WESPs, using specially designed electrodes, col-lection tubes and multistaged charging, were ideally suited to the task, especially with their ability to efficiently capture and remove acid mists and fine, submi-cron particulates containing metal oxides and other contaminants. Beltran’s proprietary system is comprised of a tightly configured ar-ray of square grounded collection tubes enclosing negatively charged electrode rods that generate intense corona fields. As the source gas is passed through the array, the ionizing electrodes induce a negative charge in even the most min-ute, submicron-size solid and liquid particles, including condensable organic chemicals. The charge differential pro-pels these materials rapidly toward the grounded collection surfaces, where they adhere as the cleaned gas passes through. The captured particles are purged from the tubes by recirculating water sprays;

residues, including aqueous sulfuric acid, are collected for further use or disposal. After decades of research, Beltran has developed a unique electrode ge-ometry featuring star-shaped discharge points which can generate a corona field four to five times more intense than that of a standard precipitator. Engineered in a multistaged charging configuration, the high-intensity corona gradients pro-duce ultra-fast particle migration veloci-ties, resulting in extremely high collec-tion efficiencies up to 99.99 percent. The system also enables faster throughput of specified gas volumes, with minimal im-pedance and less pressure drop compared to scrubbers. These superior operating efficiencies enable operators to achieve performance goals using simpler, smaller scale, less expensive equipment. The saturated operating environment of the Beltran WESPs overcomes a tech-nical problem often encountered with dry ESPs or those which use mechanical or acoustical vibrating rappers to dislodge captured particulates: the re-entrainment of particles from the collection surfaces

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back into the gas stream. The stronger particle adhesion and continuous aqueous flushing of the Beltran WESPs virtually eliminate this phenomenon. The elimina-tion of mechanical rapping also reduces costs relating to maintenance, operating environment and the higher energy de-mands imposed by this equipment. The corrosive nature of the Mopani smelter emissions required that special attention be given to the materials used in construction of the precipitators. Thus, the Beltran wet ESPs were fabri-cated using fiberglass reinforced plastic (FRP) and high nickel-chromium alloys. Although precipitators used in acid mist applications historically have been made with lead, Beltran engineers have found FRP components to be less expensive, easier to construct and maintain, and ex-tremely corrosion resistant. The electri-cally conductive sections of the WESPs are made from a special, conductive FRP material. The high-voltage insula-tors are kept continuously clean using a purge-air system, further reducing maintenance costs. The Zambian copper industry is pro-jecting an annual production of 1 million metric tons by 2015 and 1.5 million tons by 2020, according to the mines ministry. As private investments continue to pour

in and the Mopani mines ramp up activ-ity, the operator has already contracted with Beltran Technologies for six more WESP installations to handle the in-creasing volume of smelter and refinery emissions at its acid plant. Beltran Technologies is a vertically integrated corporation with decades of experience in complex industrial environ-ments and a full range of skills, including basic and applied research; project de-velopment; chemical, electrical, mechan-ical, environmental and structural engi-neering; manufacturing and fabrication of tools and components; installation and testing of precipitators, scrubbers and other systems; training of plant person-nel; and follow-up service and support. For more information, please visit www.beltrantechnologies.com. q

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Acid coolers are one of those things you may not think about much…that is, until they don’t work. A client of ours recently contacted us about a failure in their acid cooler that resulted in a weak acid condition. These types of incidents are on the rise due to aging plants being pushed to production limits that surpass their design capacities. His first question was, “How do I salvage and store the weak acid?” Although this is a valid concern, it is, in fact, the last question that should be asked. The primary focus of plant personnel should be to safely stabilize this highly volatile situation. Neglecting proper safety protocol can result in not only worthless product but also severe corrosion—rendering the equipment useless or causing more dangerous hydrogen explosions. Such undesirable scenarios can lead to unbudgeted expenses (averaging $200K-$600K depending on the size of the cooler), extended plant shutdown periods (ranging from 4-12 months) and of course, lost production. When an acid cooler failure occurs, the first step is to shut down the plant and then immediately begin to drain the cooling water from the acid cooler, while simultaneously maintaining acid concentration in the system by transferring concentrated acid from storage. The acid pressure must always be greater than the cooling water. Low acid concentrations also produce hydrogen

gas; therefore, the second step is to vent the acid towers by opening the top manways on the tower. This will allow hydrogen gas to escape into the atmosphere. Finally, the third step is to isolate the cooler from the cooling water system by closing the valves and installing blinds. Ideally, the best course of action is to add a preventive maintenance plan for the coolers and the anodic protection system within your standard operating procedures. Your plan should incorporate a checklist that includes an assessment of the pH and conductivity detection devices in the cooling water system, a visual examination of the cathodes, an inspection and cleaning of the waterside (if necessary) and a routine check for signs of tube corrosion

using eddy current testing. We recommend that eddy current testing be conducted after a tube failure as well as every three to four years after establishing a baseline inspection. Your plan must also provide detailed, step-by-step instructions on the emergency procedures to follow should an acid cooler leak occur, along with updated emergency contact information. Now, let’s get back to the client’s original question, “How do I salvage and store the weak acid?” Cold weak acid drained from the acid cooler can be stored on-site in polyethylene tanks (which can be obtained through a short-term lease). The weak acid can then be worked into your production as dilution water or even sold to alum producers in certain regions. Then again, developing and implementing a solid preventive maintenance plan today, could very well be the key to helping your plant avoid acid cooler incidents in the future. Rick Davis is the President of Davis & Associates Consulting. Look for him as he presents a Sulphuric Acid Coolers Technical Workshop at the Sulphur 2012 International Conference & Exhibition in Berlin, Germany on October 30, 2012. If you are not able to attend the conference, email [email protected] or call (863) 665-6500 to request copies of the workshop materials. q

GUEST COLUMN

Acid coolers —Failing to plan = Planning to failBy: Rick Davis, Davis & Associates Consulting Inc.

The best course of action to avoid failure is to add a preventive maintenance plan for the coolers and the anodic protection system within your standard operating procedures.


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introduction It is that time when everyone works seven days a week, long hours, lots of hard labor, large scale projects are executed, the plant is down for weeks and millions of dollars are spent on maintenance of the plant. This might sound like hell to most sulfuric/chemical plant operators, but it becomes a reality for most of us when plant turn arounds (TAs) come due. A TA for a sulfuric acid plant is when a plant is taken down for normally 2-4 weeks to do any and all inspections, maintenance work and equipment replacements that take an extended outage to accomplish. These outages cause an excess number of contractors to be doing large, sometimes dangerous jobs on a work site that they are not necessarily familiar with. Because of this, there is an increased risk for environmental and safety incidents to occur during TAs. Although turn arounds can never be eliminated completely, this article will provide information on how by improving reliability, developing better planning and scheduling processes around scheduled repaired days, shallower pressure drop curves, and resource sharing can help to extend the time in between TAs by quite a bit longer than the industry norm of 18-24 months. This article will also describe how doing these same things can lead to better safety and environmental performance, reduced contract labor and rental cost, reduced reactive maintenance and better moral and employee engagement.

history At our facility there are three sulfuric acid plants. Each plant used to have a turn around every 18-24 months. This caused us to have 2 TAs every year. One day our Maintenance Superintendent, who didn’t know much at all about operating sulfuric acid plants, asked, “Why can’t we do three years between TAs, so we only have one a year?” At first, all of the operational guys told him he was crazy and just kind of laughed it off. Then finally we asked ourselves why can’t we go three years between TAs? We started asking what dictates that a TA is required. This brought us to the following three main reasons why our plants required TAs:1.) Pressure drop across the converter (normally 1st mass) and across the acid tower mist eliminators (candles) that would cause loss in production capability. 2.) Large scale equipment failures/replacements that require multiple day plant outages to replace. 3.) The operational culture of “that’s the way we have always done it, the plants just aren’t made to go any longer between TAs.” We began to challenge and drill down to the root causes of each of these. Then we started developing/improving our systems with the end goals in mind of an EHS incident-free TA and three years between TA cycles. This article will show some general tools we used to achieve these goals and some of the results we were able to achieve by using them.

reliability tools implementedBad actor studies A bad actor study is an excellent tool to identify what pieces of equipment are responsible for the most maintenance cost and/or the most plant downtime. Currently, our reliability engineer will run a bad actor study at the end of each year by pulling all of the work orders for our department out of Maximo for that given year. The work orders are then sorted down to the plant level, type of equipment level and then even down to the specific piece of equipment. This is done for total maintenance cost, number of work orders (nuisance

equipment) and down time tied to that piece of equipment. This task can become very time consuming, but it is a very important task. What we find out quite often is that the equipment we think is causing us the most problems might not be the largest cost or downtime equipment, it just might be the nuisance equipment (most number of work orders). We can’t share the detailed charts from our actual bad actor studies, but what follows are some general examples of the type of data we normally find.

A word of warning for being able to do an effective bad actor study is that the quality of the work orders being entered has to be good in order to get good data. Our work flow process has every work order being screened for quality and scheduling codes, or when the work needs to be done. We also try to train everyone and provide feedback to them on

their work order quality. However, by no means is our system perfect. As you can see in Table 1, there are still pretty vague assets on the top 15 list, such as CAP General Support System. This asset could be many different pieces of equipment within the department. The bad actor study is still a very useful tool, however, even with some of the data not being as defined as it could be. The general rule of thumb is that the lower the quality of the work orders, the longer it is going to take to go through all of them and produce a quality bad actor study. At the end of taking all of this time to do quality bad actor studies, we were able to figure out what pieces of equipment had a Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF) of less than three years; our time between turn arounds goal. We then began to focus our reliability improvement efforts on these “bad actors,” and we still continue to focus on them each year as part of this process.

Root cause failure analysis (RCFA) Once we identified the bad actors that were causing us the most down time between turn arounds, we started asking what caused these pieces of equipment to fail. We continued to ask why over and over until we found the main root causes of these failures. This process of drilling down to the root causes of each failure is called the root cause failure analysis process. Once we get to the root causes, we assign action items to the appropriate people with due dates to hold them accountable to get their tasks done. These action items are intended to prevent the root causes from ever causing the failure to happen again, so they must be quality continual processes, not just one-time events. Fig. 4 shows an example of a RCFA cause map and some of the action items that

Sulfuric acid best management practices to extend run time between turn aroundsBy: James Briscoe, reliability engineer, Mosaic Co. and Josh Every, sulfuric acid production coordinator, Mosaic Co.

Mechanical top 15 by cost

Asset # Asset Name

1 10T06 TPA #6 SULFURIC ACID STORAGE TANK, 669620GAL

2 9-DMPR-JUG

TPA #9 CAP GAS DAMPER JUG TEE VALVE (all gas leaks CAP Wide tied to this)

3 12P101B TPA #8 CAP S. BOILER FD WATER PUMP SYSTEM

4 11-P103P TPA #7 CAP NORTH IPA PUMP, LEWIS,SIZE 10,CANTILEVER -

5 13V08 CAP 9 Containment Pad

6 13F100 TPA #9 CAP MAIN BLOWER D54JR SYSTEM

7 12H102 TPA #8 CAP #2 SUPERHEATER, SHELL + TUBE (wash)

8 9-DMPR-MAIN

TPA #9 CAP GAS DUCTWORK/DAMPERS

9 14P201 TPA #1 TG COOLING TOWER WEST CIR-CULATING PUMP SYSTEM

10 11-P106P TPA #7 CAP FINAL ABSORPTION TOWER PUMP,LEWIS,SIZE 8,CANTILEVER

11 12P8641P TPA #8 CAP DRYING TOWER PUMP SYSTEM

12 17P100M TPA #7 CAP COOLING WATER BOOSTER PUMP MOTOR

13 T-100S TPA CAP GENERAL SUPPORT SYSTEM

14 12U100 TPA #8 CAP FINAL TOWER SYSTEM (mainly structural)

15 13P03P TPA #9 CAP DRYING IPA WEST PUMP

Table 1: Bad actor table for top 15 mechanical assets by cost

Fig. 2: Bad actor chart for total number of work orders by mechanical equipment type

Fig. 3: Bad actor chart for down time cause by type of piping

Fig. 1: Bad actor chart for total cost by area of the department


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could be assigned to address the root causes. As you can see, some failures can have multiple root causes, which can cause an RCFA to become very long. The most important thing to remember is to focus on the direct causes for this failure, rather than every failure that is ever possible on this piece of equipment. The more directly you can focus on the root causes, the more likely you are to put the correct countermeasures in place to prevent the failure from happening again. Following the Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle, it is always important to follow up on the effectiveness of the action items implemented to ensure their intent is achieved.

PM and PDM for equipment while it is online A lot of the RCFA action items will lead to requiring extra inspections on the

equipment to determine the health of the equipment and predict failures before they happen. The best types of inspections are those that predict failures as early up the failure curve as possible. This is shown in Fig. 5. As shown on the graph by using PDM inspections such as ultra sonic, vibration data, infrared and oil analysis, we can find failures long before they happen. These are all great tools we have put in place for all of our rotating assets in our plants. We have added the position of a PM mechanic to our area to help out with these tasks, along with some routine visual checks and qualitative checks. Examples of some of these PM check sheets are shown in Fig. 6. The goal of our entire PM and PDM process is to discover defects in equipment long before they get to the point of failure, so that we can get them through our planning

and scheduling process. By doing this, we can greatly reduce the amount of emergency outages we have to take, giving us the opportunity to plan and schedule our repair days (as discussed in the sections to follow). By using these reliability tools and trying to develop a continuous improvement reliability focused culture, we continue to push the limits of what we once thought was possible in both equipment life and turn around cycles. We are by no means perfect, and we still have emergency downtime, unexpected equipment failures and don’t always make our planned outages as scheduled. But, the important thing is by focusing on our equipment reliability and using these great tools on a daily basis, we continue to improve and push ourselves to get closer to our ultimate goals.

Planning and scheduling short and long term outages

Single minute exchange of dyes—SMED process A lean process is one in which you analyze every step of a procedure to determine how to safely execute a task with minimal wasted steps. We like to call it perfect efficiency. We have adopted that methodology in designing our repair days. How do we shut down and lock out equipment to perform necessary maintenance within the least amount of time possible to get the equipment back up and running? It’s a lot easier for single pieces of equipment, but the methodology can also be applied to entire systems for outages from a typical repair day to a multi-day outage to a full blown TA process. What’s required to successfully SMED an event? First, it must be an expected or planned event. You can SMED an emergency repair by having a planned procedure for typical or standard repairs. However, to SMED a full outage regardless of the size, you need time to analyze and prepare. SMED requires knowing what work you are going to try to accomplish, as well as knowing what and how to secure the equipment you are working on

and communicate that information to all parties involved in the process.

Where does it start? Work Identification–You need to correctly identify the work that you are going to do during the outage. You need to make sure the work you want to do really requires an outage and can’t be safely or effectively managed while operating by utilizing other opportunities. Work Planning–The work needs to be planned in such a way that only tasks that need to be done while the plant is down are done. For instance; if you are going to install a new line, you don’t need to have the system down for the whole fabrication and install. In many instances, you can run the new line parallel to the existing line, then in a short outage you can secure the system long enough to cut out the old pipe and drop the new pipe in its place and tie it in. Parts Procurement/Staging–The parts need to be purchased and placed at a location near the work site prior to an outage. This minimizes the amount of time spent locating the parts so that when the system is down, the work is ready to begin so it can finish in as short a time as necessary. Work Scheduling–This requires intimate knowledge of how to schedule the work so that the resources get to each job in as short a time as possible. You don’t want to schedule jobs for resources at one location, have the next job be 200 feet away requiring different PPE, then move to the next job which is back within 20 feet of the first job with different PPE yet again. Schedule the work to resources that are within close proximity and similar PPE requirements so that time isn’t wasted with extra travel and time that it takes to change PPE. Shutdown/Securing–Lay out your shut down plan so that each person understands his or her roles and expectations in regards to a timely and safe shut down. Bring in the individuals responsible for the tasks so that they can review plans and provide feedback to help speed up the time line. Remember, all of this is to help reduce wasted steps/tasks. Even organizing a lockbox LOTO list so that you can efficiently move from one

No Cause Action Item Owner Due Date

1 debris in tube from cooling tower

Inspect screens in #7 CT Mark Wilson 08/13/09

2 Look into strainers on CT pumps James Briscoe 09/30/09

Look at basket strainers for discharge of CT pumps

James Briscoe 12/30/09

3 After TA Jan. 07 low acid strength was pres-ent at 90 acid strength for ????

Research if there is any data on this

4 pitting on the shell side

Research more into what causes shell side failures, where build ups happen.

Nicole 08/30/09

5 thin tubes from wear Plan in place for pulling tubes when failures occur

Donnie Phillips 11/30/09

6 General Cooler Failure Look into flipping cooler Nicole 08/30/09

7 welding all the plugged tubes or replac-ing tubes.

Darren 02/28/10

8 Review standard for when tubes should be plugged

James Briscoe and Darren

12/30/09

9 Review Shut Down procedure for cooler acid leaks

Josh Every 08/30/09

10 how we do leak test Darren and Donnie

08/30/09

11 cooling water system connected between coolers

Replace cooler so that it can handle IPA cooler and trim cooler cap.

Nicole 02/28/10

Table 2: Action item chart for cooler tube failure RCFA

Fig. 4: Root cause failure analysis example for acid cooler tube leaks

Fig. 5: PDM P-F curve


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spot to the next without the wasted steps of having to double back can shave up to 30 minutes off the time it takes to secure. Work Execution–With the proper ground work prepared, you can move through the execution with minimal interruption, which allows you to focus more time on managing interruptions rather than interruptions managing you. Critique–After the work is complete and the plant is started back up, schedule a time to sit down with all affected parties and discuss lessons learned from the outage. Where was there a breakdown? What was done exceptionally well? What could have been improved?

Planned outages or opportunity outages The question is which is preferred. One can argue that you can plan opportunity outages but we question how effective they really are. Can you make sure all parts are on hand and that you have enough resources to effectively complete the work in a timely manner? Could you be more effective if you could take the time to look at the work flow throughout the outage? Plan on mobile equipment needs. Make sure equipment is located at centralized areas so that it can be used for each job as it comes up. The goal is that no work group be waiting for the equipment to become available. We are of the opinion that it is better to plan your outages in advance. Set a date and gather the work together as it comes up. This way you can make sure all necessary parts can arrive in time. You don’t need to expedite as many materials. You don’t need to rush to get contractors and bring them up to speed on what is going on. It makes for a more effective outage.

Building safety into your TA planning Is it really possible to have an injury free TA? Anything is possible. In order to increase your chances, it is important that you plan appropriately and never lose your focus on the end goal. Some things we did during this past TA that we feel were key to promoting an injury free TA were as follows:—Select a dedicated TA Ops Group. This is a group of individuals who help with LOTO and permitting. These individuals need to be familiar with the operation of each piece of equipment as well as the individual hazards present with each one. —Set up a day shift and a night shift mechanic to monitor and perform quality checks on the work being performed. They also act as safety watches for both contractors and FTE’s.—Pull the TA Ops Group out of day-to-day activities ahead of TA. This gives them time to review the plans, walk down the shut down plan and LOTO. This helps them understand how things are going to be done. It also allows them a chance to provide feedback and help tweak the plan for a better overall outcome.—Have a contractor safety meeting. Make sure everyone understands that there is a lot of work happening in a small area. Ensure everyone understands that safety

is everyone’s responsibility. Encourage communication between contractors and the leadership group. Remember the way we stay safe is to watch out for one another.—Don’t rush the LOTO walk through. We try to have the LOTO complete as early as Sunday morning so that we have the day to take the work group supervisors through the walkthrough. They get to observe the keys locked in the box then they get a copy of each lockbox list to check off as we walk through the LO. Once complete, their list gets posted in their trailers to promote communication of the LO so that all workers are informed.—Safety meetings every morning. This is to help keep focus on safety. Reminding each other about simple things, such as proper body positioning, pinch points, proper PPE, lifting techniques, GFCI and electrical hazards, helps keep us thinking about safety throughout the day.—Safety audits. Taking a few minutes each day to verify proper grounding and that pins are in hoses can help prevent injuries later in the TA.—Permitting. Make sure that all permits are being checked and communicated effectively. Make sure contractors are aware of what work is going on around them in the area they will be working. These are just some of the major things we did that I feel went a long way to helping us realize our goal. Is it possible that we just got lucky? It is; however, if you don’t plan for an injury free TA, you are less likely to have one.

Conclusion Injury free turn arounds, planned outages, and three-year turn around cycles used to be things we thought would be nice to have, but impossible to do. However, after implementing improved reliability processes such as bad actor studies, root cause failure analysis and proper PMs and PDMs and by practicing efficient, planned and scheduled repair days using the SMED process, we have been able to meet some of these goals that we once thought to be impossible. By no means are we perfect, and we still have emergency outages, unplanned equipment failures, down days that go longer than scheduled, and many other issues, but in the end we have implemented these tools that have helped to change our department’s culture as a whole. We have achieved an injury free turn around, we have reduced our total number of reds (equipment in which defects were found by PM or PDM method) by over 50 percent, we have gone three years between turn arounds several times now, and we have improved/implemented a good deal of our daily processes that continue to get better. The biggest benefit of all has been the development of our team working together to push ourselves to meet our common goals. Who knows, maybe next we will push for six-year turn arounds? Just kidding. For more information, please contact James Briscoe at [email protected] or Josh Every at [email protected]. q

Inspection Description EPN Yes, No, or NA Comments Initial

11-T16 and 11-P16 (WO Numbers for issues found)

Are there any leaks from the reservoir, piping, pumps or coolers? (Mark on pictures where leaks are.)

Is the oil level at the indicated level shown on the reservoir left of the sight glass? (Shown in picture below.) Is the sight glass clear, easy to read, and not cracked?

If any oil is added, please put approximately how much.

(Use Turbine Oil 32 only)

OIL ADDED _______

Are the gauges on the system operating? Are gauges labeled and legible?

Please check and record oil pressures listed below:Center GaugePump Outlet Pressure________(60-140 psi when running)Left Gauge System Diff Pressure_________(0-20 psi higher than pump outlet pressure)Right GaugeFilter pressure ______(0-20 psi less than pump outlet pressure)

Take a temperature reading on the front of the reservoir using the temperature output on the vibe pen. Is the oil temperature between 105 and 125 degrees F?

Oil Temperature______(105-125 F when running)

Are all 4 base bolts in place and at least finger tight on the aux pump and motor?

Is there excessive vibration on any of the aux pumps or motors? (Use vibration pen to taking readings at the positions marked in the picture below. Also use the temperature gun to obtain bearing oil temperatures at the same points.)

Aux Oil Pump ________(Under 0.25 in/s when running)Temperature_________

(105-125 F when running)

Oil Pump A Motor______

(Under 0.25 in/s when running)Temperature________

(105-125 F when running)

Is the motor junction box sealed and secure? (No visible openings, no conduit or wire issues.)

Fig. 6: CAP PM mechanic check sheet example


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Efficient by design

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Using the proper spray nozzles is critical in sulfur burning. The nozzles must produce drop size characteristics that ensure rapid vaporization and complete combustion within the furnace to minimize build-up on the furnace walls and carryover to downstream equipment. There are many factors that can affect drop size and it is important to understand how process conditions may affect performance of sulfur guns and nozzles. Spraying Systems Co. offers a technical bulletin on understanding drop size. This 36-page booklet explains how drops are formed using atomization, how drop size is measured and the various

aspects of drop size and sprays, such as drop size distribution. It also covers the factors that affect drop size including spray pattern, flow rate, pressure, spray angle, fluid viscosity and more. As sulfur producers explore new equipment to increase production and improve operational efficiency, this technical guide can be an invaluable resource. For example, producers will gain a clear understanding of the performance problems caused by increasing flow or pressure beyond a nozzle’s rated capacity. Understanding Drop Size, available at no charge from Spraying Systems Co. at www.spray.com/dropsizebooklet, also provides an overview of different nozzle types and tips on how to optimize performance. Spraying Systems Co. is the pioneer in

spray technology for sulfuric acid spraying. The company developed the hydraulic BA WhirlJet® hollow cone nozzle, the industry standard for molten sulfur spraying. Other widely used nozzles from Spraying Systems Co. include air atomizing nozzles with SU89 set-ups and FloMax® nozzles. FloMax nozzles can operate at higher flow rates than other air atomizing nozzles used in sulfur burning and feature a high turndown ratio that ensure drop size consistency over a wide range of flow rates. Spraying Systems Co. also offers sulfur guns in a wide range of designs, lengths and materials as well as Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) modeling services to validate and optimize sulfur combustion in the furnace prior to specification. For more information, call (800) 95-SPRAY, (630) 665-5000 or visit www.spray.com. q


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Understanding drop size: key to increasing throughput and optimizing performance in sulfur burning

Drop size is critical to optimizing performance in sulfur burning. Hydraulic BA WhirlJet nozzles (left in photo) produce small drops and feature open flow passages to minimize clogging. FloMax® air atomizing nozzles (right in photo) produce smaller drops and feature higher flow rates and high turndown ratios for consistent performance over a wide operating range.

Sulfur gun with BA WhirlJet® nozzle is widely used for sulfur spraying.

Understanding Drop Size is a free, helpful

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In my article from the Spring/Summer 2012 issue of Sulfuric Acid Today magazine, we covered government requirements in the United States and other countries. In this article we will reveal the prequalification processes used in the industry. Third party auditing firms are playing a big part in the prequalification process. We will examine the positives and negatives of the new wave of these auditing systems throughout the United States and Canada.

The history behind third party auditing and the prequalification process is rooted in the OSHA standard 1910.119 Process Safety Management of Highly Hazardous Chemicals. It states, ‘The employer (process site owner), when selecting a contractor, shall obtain and evaluate information regarding the contract employer’s safety performance and programs.’

As a result of this standard, site owners of processes with highly hazardous chemicals must evaluate any contract companies prior to allowing them to

perform work on their site. The Pre-Qualification Form (PQF) is a tool widely used to begin the process of screening perspective companies.

The PQF begins with general information about the company, officers, financial status, insurance information, type of work performed, union / non- union status and contact information.

The next segment, Safety and Health Performance, asks for Experience Modification Rate (EMR), SIC code, injury and illness data, any regulatory citations in the last three years and the last three years of OSHA 300 logs.

Safety, Health & Environmental Management is next and asks for specifics about the safety department including highest ranking safety professional, number of full time safety persons, and site safety coordinators.

Safety, Health and Environmental Programs/Procedures is the longest segment of the PQF. This segment asks for specific components of your program to include management commitment,

accountabilities/responsibilities for managers, supervisors and employees, resources provided to the SH&E program, safety and health performance appraisals, hazard recognition program and advising the owner of unique hazards created by the contractors work. This segment ask that the contractor identify all work practices and procedures to be used on site to include anything from housekeeping to lock out tag out and confined space entry procedures. The contract company must verify medical compliance for employees including aphysical, audio, pulmonary, respiratory, hearing function, respirator fit testing and substance abuse testing.

Safety, Health and Environmental Training concludes the final segment of the PQF. The contractor program must include all regulatory safety, health and environmental training for all employees. Supervisors must have specific training in this area. All employees must have site specific and task specific training. This training must be formal, documented and up to date. Specific training documentation of any and all employees must be made available if requested by the employer/site owner.

Once the PQF is submitted the site owner will audit a portion of the contract companies. They send a safety auditor to the contractor’s facility. The auditor meets with the highest-ranking safety person and asks specific questions regarding health and safety. The auditor uses a checklist to review all areas of Process Safety Management as it applies to the contractor. The auditor requests examples of everything on the checklist. Some examples are: training records, safety meeting sheets, equipment inspection forms, etc. The next step of the auditor is a tour of the facility with the expectation of asking random employees specific questions about the Safety Health and Environmental program. They are also asked what their job function is and when they were trained for that function. The auditor may ask safety questions specific to the employees’ task. Once the audit is complete, the auditor reviews the information from the PQF and the findings of the audit. The auditor highlights the positives and clearly defines the opportunities for improvement. In cases where unacceptable deficiencies are identified, the contract company may be given a period of time to make changes. A follow up meeting would occur at that time.

The newest auditing process for PSM compliance is the independent auditing

firm called third party auditors. They form a partnership with site owners who mandate all contract companies be compliant with a third party auditing firm. The auditing firm then charges the contract company an expensive annual fee for the privilege of being audited. The auditing firm then sends the contract company a questionnaire with an extensive range of questions. Once this questionnaire is complete, the auditing firm compiles a matrix that determines what safety requirements the contract company must have in their program. An example might be the contract company’s confined space entry program. The downside of this process is the matrix may identify a safety program that has nothing to do with the services provided by the contract company. An example might be requiring a welding company to have a trenching and shoring program because they are working on a site that has trenching and shoring work. It’s true the contract company needs awareness training (part of all basic safety council training) but the auditing firm may insist on user training including identifying a competent person. This happens frequently because the matrix is not specific to each contract company’s services provided. Therefore, a contract company may have 50 safety programs identified with only 30 being relevant to their services.

Depending on the safety program identified, there may be 20–30 segments each having multiple questions. The auditing firm requires each question be answered with the attached page and paragraph from the contract company’s Safety Health and Environmental program. If the excerpt does not match the auditing firm’s existing statement almost verbatim, the contract company must edit their program to reflect the answer. The initial man-hours needed for compliance of our project was approximately 400. Monthly maintenance for the program is approximately 5-10 man-hours.

The upside to a third party audit system is that site owners can meet PSM compliance without having to dedicate manpower or money. The downside to the system is that there is no site auditor visit to verify the paperwork that’s being submitted. In my opinion, anyone can look good on paper. The rubber meets the road when auditors evaluate a contract company at their site and interview their employees.

For more information, please contact Darwin Passman of VIP International at (225) 753-8575 or [email protected]. q

Safety! The next frontier By: Darwin Passman, CSP/HR Safety Director, VIP International

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Ashes entering the converter interferes with the formation of SO2. In a sulfur burning plant, sulfur filters usually catch the blame. A “polishing filter” can solve this problem. However, in numerous inspections of sulfur melting plants, Sulphurnet has discovered that it is not the filtration that is causing the problem. Process design and operation procedures are more likely to be the cause of the poor quality of sulfur entering the sulfur burner. In the sulfur melting and purification area of the plant, there is a sequence of individual process steps, from storage of solid dirty sulfur to the purified liquid sulfur. Faults in one of these steps add up to difficulties in the filtration step. Incorrect designs are another cause of difficulties that leads to poor quality sulfur. The combination of good equipment and proper process parameters is of utmost importance. As we examine the process, we start with the storage of solid sulfur. Storage can be in the open air or in a covered area (or under roof storage). It is a matter of investment cost choosing which type. Sulfur in open storage is affected by the environment, such as wind, dust and rain, all of which can cause pollution of the sulfur. Sometimes rain can affect the acidity of sulfur drastically, for example in dry times, the water will evaporate causing the acidity to increase. Under roof storage, however, offers controlled

parameters resulting in a much more uniform quality sulfur. In the case of open storage, the extra acidity will require lime dosing for neutralization. And the acidity will vary due to the influences of the seasons. Lime dosing has to be controlled frequently—two times per shift is recommended. Over dosing as well as under dosing will affect the process. Under dosing lime will result in high acidity, which can damage process equipment downstream, such as heating coils and filters as well as filter leafs. In addition, all steel will be affected by the acidity. When the pH is low, large quantities of lime have to be added to the process. The large amounts of solids will disturb the melting process as well as the filtration process. Because of the high acidity and neutralization reaction, the residence time in the melter will be longer, affecting the plant capacity. The high amounts of solids have to be kept in suspension by the agitation. When you have a rectangular in-ground pit, suspension will be difficult and sedimentation in the dead corner zones will occur. Sedimentation of the solids will lead to reduction of the heat transfer and thus the melting capacity. Overflow systems will cause settling even more. Also, in-ground pits have to be cleaned manually. For cleaning in-ground pits, the sulfur has to be cooled and the remains in the bottom have to be removed by hammer drill. This is not only a time consuming exercise, but coils and walls can be damaged as well. An above ground round melter system has a better flow pattern and solids will remain in suspension more easily. The heat transfer coefficient is also significantly better. Above ground melters have drain systems, so the remains in the bottom can be transferred to the dirty sulfur pump pit and transferred to the liquid sulfur filters. Reduced sulfur loss creates smaller waste streams and reduced labor time loss. In addition, since the heat transfer is very efficient, smaller melters can be installed, which require less plot space. After melting, purification and the pre-coat filter comprise the next step in the process. Design is also important in this step and a separate pre-coat tank is necessary. A separate tank is necessary for the following reasons:—To obtain the right dosage of pre-coat sulfur mix—To reduce the pre-coat cycle—To obtain a good even pre-coat layer—To obtain a high filtration efficiency —To have a dedicated pre-coat pump Also, the pre coat pit should be filled with CLEAN sulfur, not with the overflow of dirty sulfur from the pump pit. The pump used for pre-coating should be dedicated for the pre coat cycle only—the flow rate is much higher than the regular dirty sulfur feed. In the filtration section, the piping has to be set up correctly. Pressure drop and pressure fluctuations can influence the formation of the filter cake. An incorrect set up can damage the filter cake and cause a breakthrough of particles. The filtration process and cycle length mainly depends on the solid load. In the case of high acidity and high volume of lime addition, the cycle length is shorter. Overloading the filters with a bulk of solids may damage the filter leafs and cause difficulties when cleaning the filters. For that reason, it is important to monitor the

filtration cycle and filter cake formation with a pressure differential measurement device. It is important for filter leafs and filter leaf gaskets to be regularly inspected. When the setup is correct and all operation procedures are followed, ash levels of 10-15 ppm can be achieved. This is an acceptable level in a sulfur burning plant. For security reasons, a polishing filter can also be installed; however, one should realize that a polishing filter is there for protection reasons, in case of emergencies, and not for the constant removal of high levels of impurities. A good set up of a polishing filter can reduce the ash levels down to 5–8 ppm. Good operation procedures and using improved equipment for melting and purification of sulfur will not only reduce pollution of the catalyst bed, but will also contribute to a cleaner and safer environment in the sulfur melting section. If you want to improve you sulfur processing plant or need more information, please contact Jan Hermans of Sulphurnet at [email protected] or at +31651317332. q

Sulfur processing: melting and purification

Advanced Liquid Sulfur Filter

By: Jan Hermans, Sulphurnet

Advantages above ground sulphur melter1) Better heat transfer Smaller footprint melter2) No dead corner zones Less settlng3) Overflow system Less heavy solids trans-

ferred to the pump pit; pump protection

4) Draining system No need for cooling5) No manual cleaning Less sulphur losses

Above Ground Sulfur Melters in Amabotovy


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on-line sulfuric acid measurement using anton Paar process instruments

ASHLAND, Va.—Anton Paar’s new application report, “On-line Concentration Measurement of Sulfuric Acid,” is now available. The report describes how density and sound velocity are used to determine the concentration of sulfuric acid and oleum in various industrial processes.

It covers an overview of sulfuric acid production, typical installations, theory of measurement and a summary of benefits of measuring online. The application report is relevant to a wide variety of industries, including the production of fertilizers, phosphoric acid, hydrofluoric acid, viscose, paint, glass, detergents, battery acid and pickling baths in the steel industry. Anton Paar offers a wide range of process products for the measurement of sulfuric acid, which include tantalum density cells and gold-plated sound velocity cells. The report covers which instrument would apply to each range of sulfuric acid or oleum measurement, and explains the technology behind each measuring range. For a copy of this free application report, please contact Anton Paar at (800) 722-7556, or visit www.anton-paar.com/process-solutions.us.

Blasch introduces new tubesheet ferrule products

ALBANY, N.Y.—Blasch Precision Ceramics, Inc., recently announced the availability of a complete line of waste

heat boiler tubesheet ferrule products to augment its patented one-piece, precast, hexagonal head ferrule. The one-piece hex ferrule design, now more than a decade old, has been used in hundreds of successful installations in a wide variety of chemical applications worldwide. Deployment of this design has been limited, however, to protection of tubesheets with reasonable dimensional accuracy, a uniform tube layout and relatively consistent furnace operating parameters. Now there are a number of options available that allow users to address lower precision tubesheets along with less controlled processes. The new configurations all retain the same proven reliable ferrule expansion management system along with flow path features that aid in process optimization. Both type A, the standard one-piece precast ferrule, and type B, the two-piece precast ferrule, are produced with Blasch’s patented engineered expansion joint design. Segmenting the ferrule increases the available expansion management capacity while maintaining the unique Blasch fiber seal mechanism. The new designs are used in cases where the tubesheet may be older, but still

reasonably accurate, where there is less room between the ferrule and the tube ID than desired, or where temperature swings are greater than desired. They are also used in cases where the customer specifies only a two-piece ferrule be used. Type C, with an overlapping precast ferrule design, is used in cases where the tubesheet is either old enough to pre-date CNC machining, or damaged, and is not accurate enough to calculate any sort of reliable ferrule closure. This design allows for maximum lateral movement of the ferrules while still ensuring a tight and retained fiber seal. The Blasch family of precast ferrule systems allows for greater design flexibility than traditional cast refractory systems because the mechanical and insulating functions of the system are separated, and are addressed separately by the cast refractory shape and the fiber backup, respectively. Traditional metal ferrules in a wide range of alloys are also offered in applications where high temperatures, erosion and corrosion are less significant in operations. For more information, please visit

www.blaschceramics.com. q

PRODUCT NEWS

Gold plated sound velocity sensor


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SnC-lavalin awarded contract for sulfuric/phosphoric acid complex in Jordan

MONTREAL—SNC-Lavalin in Europe has been awarded an engineering, procurement, construction management (EPCM) contract to build a grassroots sulfuric/phosphoric acid complex including utilities and a power plant in Eshidya, Jordan by JIFCO, a joint venture company owned by Jordanian Phosphate Mines Company (JPMC) and Indian Farm-ers Fertilizer Cooperative Limited (IFFCO). JPMC is a leading phosphate rock, phosphoric acid and fertilizer producer in Jordan, and IFFCO is the largest fertilizer producer and distributor cooperative in India. The total esti-mated investment value of the project is about $625 million. SNC-Lavalin will provide overall proj-ect management, detailed design, proprietary equipment items and construction manage-ment for the facilities. This world-class com-plex will have a capacity of 500,000 metric tons/year of phosphoric acid. It includes a single line sulfuric acid plant with a capacity of 4,500 metric tons/day, making it the largest single stream unit in the world. “This contract reflects our notable ex-perience and technical capabilities in the fer-tilizer field,” Jean Claude Pingat, executive vice-president, SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. and president, SNC-Lavalin in Europe, said. “It is also an excellent example of how SNC-Lava-lin creates synergies among its various areas of expertise to bring added value to its clients, in this case the provision and integration of sulfuric and phosphoric acid plants and other associated facilities.” Production start-up is expected before the end of 2012. For more information, please visit www.snclavalin.com.

noraM awarded acid plant upgrades

VANCOUVER, Canada—NORAM has been awarded the design and supply of major acid plant equipment for a refinery-associated re-generation acid plant. The equipment supply includes a preheater furnace with NORAM’s patented cold sweep gas exchanger, a four bed stainless steel converter and three stainless steel radial flow gas to gas exchangers. In-cluded in the scope of work is the design of the connecting gas ducting. Equipment delivery is scheduled for the first quarter of 2013 with installation to follow. The converter and gas exchangers will be fabricated by NORAM’s fabrication shop, Axton, located in Vancouver. Additionally, NORAM-designed radial flow gas exchangers, also fabricated by Ax-ton, have been shipped for installation in a U.S. regeneration sulfuric acid plant. The cold and intermediate exchangers will complement the NORAM hot exchanger supplied earlier.

These exchangers are scheduled to be installed in the first quarter of 2013. For more information, please visit www.noram-eng.com.

topsøe Catalysis forum dedicated to the haldor topsøe Centennial

LYNGBY, Denmark—Every year since 2004, Topsøe has invited highly recognized scien-tists from both academia and industry to Den-mark to participate in the Topsøe Catalysis Fo-rum. This is a platform Topsøe has established for knowledge-sharing and discussions of new reactions and new principles in catalysis. This year’s topic was Microscopy in Ca-talysis. The forum took place August 23 – 24 at Munkerupgaard in Denmark. The forum was dedicated to Dr. Haldor Topsøe’s Centen-nial which will culminate with his 100th birth-day on May 24, 2013. “Fundamental scientific research and de-velopment is important to Topsøe and a cru-cial element in Dr. Haldor Topsøe’s vision of a groundbreaking company with a long range view on establishment of sustainable solutions. Catalysis research based on various types of microscopy has for the last decades been one of Topsøe’s scientific focus areas as well as one of Dr. Haldor Topsøe’s personal key points of interest. We therefore found it natural to choose that as this year’s topic,” Jesper Nerlov, executive vice president, R&D, Topsøe, said. The aim of the Topsøe Catalysis Forum on Microscopy in Catalysis was to review state-of-the-art microscope techniques, along with their applications and challenges when used as tools for understanding heterogeneous catalysis. The aim was also to discuss how mi-croscopy techniques can be further developed to provide catalysis insights beyond current possibilities. For more information, please visit www.topsoe.com.

glencore’s Philippine copper unit plans $600 million expansion

BAAR, Switzerland—Commodities trader Glencore International is close to concluding technical and financial studies for its $600 million plan to double capacity at the Phil-ippines’ only copper smelter and refinery. Work on enlarging operations at the refin-

ery in the central Philippine province of Leyte could start as soon as next May, Angel Veloso Jr., chairman of the Philippine Associated Smelting and Refining Corp (PASAR), said. “In June, we announced investment of up to about $600 million,” Veloso said. “The ex-pansion plan is to increase capacity to a maxi-mum of 1.2 million tons of copper concentrate.” The plant now processes 720,000 tons of copper concentrates annually and refines 215,000 tons of cathodes. Techni-cal studies should be completed by Oc-tober and financial studies by Decem-ber, Veloso said, adding that the project would take two to three years to complete. PASAR, which is 78-percent owned by Glencore, the world’s largest diversified com-modities trader, also wants to build a 200-MW coal-fired power plant to lower its energy cost, and may sell extra power to users at an indus-trial estate it plans to build near its refinery. PASAR resumed operations at the refinery last month after it was shut in January by a fire. The company, which has been pro-ducing copper cathodes for export since 1976, was acquired from the Philippine government by Glencore in 1999. PASAR buys and refines copper concentrates from mines in Australia, Canada, Southeast Asia, Papua New Guinea and South America. PASAR is one of only a handful of com-panies involved in downstream metals pro-cessing in the Southeast Asian country. Phil-ippine President Benigno Aquino wants the mining industry to shift to more value-added output by setting up processing plants and moving away from direct shipments of ores, so as to help the country raise more revenue from its largely untapped mineral resources, estimated to be worth $850 billion. For more information, please visit www.glencore.com.

Jacobs wins South africa sulfuric acid plant work

PASADENA, Calif.—Jacobs Engineering Group was recently awarded two contracts by Foskor Ltd. to design and fabricate two final acid towers and one acid cooler for Foskor’s sulfuric acid plants in Richards Bay, South Africa. The contract value was not disclosed. Under the terms of the deal, Jacobs is designing the equipment and process for two final acid towers using Jacobs’ proprietary Chemetics alloy Saramet. Jacobs is also de-signing and fabricating a proprietary anodical-ly-protected sulfuric acid cooler, which will be manufactured at Jacobs’ facility in Pickering, Ontario, Canada. Meanwhile, the company plans to man-age local fabrication and site coordination from Jacobs’ operations in South Africa. “This project builds on a successful acid cooler replacement that Jacobs com-pleted for Foskor in 2009,” Jacobs Vice President Andy Kremer said. “We look forward to many more opportunities to enhance Foskor’s competitive advantage

through superior technical solutions.” Jacobs has supplied more than 1,600 pro-prietary acid coolers to clients over more than 40 years, according to the company. For more information, please visit www.jacobs.com.

Japanese bank shows interest in chemical project in turkmenistan

TURKMENABAT, Turkmenistan—Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) has shown interest in investing in capital improve-ments at a chemical plant in Turkmenistan, Lebap region, which is preparing for a major reconstruction, Turkmenhimiya State Concern said in early October. Turkmenhimiya State Concern is pre-paring to sign an agreement on constructing a sulfuric acid production unit at the plant. Companies including Japan’s Mitsui Inginir-ing & Shipbulding Co. and Turkey’s Rönesans Türkmen Insaat Sanayi ve Ticaret A.S. voiced the intention to participate in a major project and made a joint proposal. According to the proposed project, a new unit for sulfuric acid production will consist of a single technologi-cal line of double absorption having a continu-ous production capacity of 1,500 metric tons of sulfuric acid per day. The unit is designed for continuous round-the-clock work during 333 days a year. The chemical plant in Turkmenabat de-livered 269,720 tons of fertilizers to farmers from January to August 2012, according to the agriculture ministry. The plant provides all regions with phosphorus fertilizers, which assists in increasing yields in Turkmenistan’s major crops: cotton, corn, rice and sugar beets. For more information, please visit www.turkmenistan.ru/en.

Paradeep Phosphates investing in new projects

BHUBANESWAR, India—Fertilizer manu-facturer Paradeep Phosphates Ltd. (PPL) has said it will be investing around Rs 600 crore ($115 million) on new projects for raising ca-pacity in the near future. A number of projects are underway for de-bottlenecking of the phosphoric acid and DAP plants, PPL Managing Director S. S. Nandurdikar said. In addition, projects like a new sulfuric acid plant with 2,000 ton daily capacity and Zypmite plant for granulated phosphogypsum are at different stages of implementation. According to Nandurdikar, the compa-ny’s performance has increased over the last year. PPL made Rs 259.26 crore ($49.8 mil-lion) before-tax profit during 2011-12, com-pared to Rs 239.18 crore ($45.9 million) in the previous year—up 8.39 percent. For more information, please visit www.paradeepphosphates.com. q

INDUSTRY INSIGHTS

NORAM gas exchanger


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http://www.snclavalin.com/

http://www.jacobs.com/

http://www.jacobs.com/

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/topic/Paradeep Phosphates

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/topic/Phosphoric acid

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/topic/S S Nandurdikar

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/topic/S S Nandurdikar

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/topic/Sulphuric Acid

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/topic/Sulphuric Acid

DuPont held the 26th annual Best Practices Workshop at the Resort at Squaw Creek in Lake Tahoe, Ca., in September 2012. The Workshop was separated into two sessions: STRATCO® Alkylation Best Practices and MECS® Sulfuric Acid Regeneration Best Practices. The Workshop attracted operations personnel, process and mechanical engineers, engineering supervisors and technology specialists from around the world for four days of focused learning, technical information sharing and networking. Through breakout sessions, Q&As and expert panels, attendees were able to deepen their knowledge of the industry while being introduced to new technologies and techniques. Session topics included something for everyone, and ranged from the role of alkylation in the refinery, to effluent treating and fractionation to acid plant operator training solutions. Speakers covered global market conditions, technology configuration and selection, technical design considerations, operations and maintenance, as well as technology troubleshooting and performance optimization. In addition to the technical aspects of the conference, everyone enjoyed the world-class location and special events planned throughout the week, including a cruise on beautiful Lake Tahoe. For more information, or to learn about plans for the 2013 Workshop, please visit www.cleantechnologies.

dupont.com. q

The central Florida section of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) hosted its 36th annual International Phosphate Fertilizer & Sulfuric Acid Technology Conference in Clearwater, Fla. Known simply as the Clearwater Conference, the convention drew experts from all over the world to share their ideas concerning chemical process technology. Held June 8-9, 2012 at the Sheraton Sand Key Resort, the conference explored topics surrounding the production of phosphoric acid, phosphate fertilizers and sulfuric acid. On the first day of the conference, a workshop on sulfuric

acid was held. Chaired by Rick Davis of Davis & Associates Consulting, Inc. and Jim Dougherty of Mosaic Co., the workshop topics explored acid cooler design and maintenance. Presentations delved into design, maintenance, troubleshooting, lessons learned, materials of construction, cooling water and inspections. There was also an update on recent hydrogen incidents that have occurred in the industry. The conference’s second day consisted of two concurrent technical sessions—one for phosphoric acid and the other for sulfuric acid. The sulfuric acid presentations included:

--“Sulfuric Acid Plant Water Use in Arid Areas,” by Daniel Freeman and Eli Arbiv of SNC-LAVALIN International Inc.—“From Small to Large—Design Aspects for Acid Plants,” by Hannes Storch, Outotec—“Sulfuric Acid Best Management Practices to Extend Run Time Between Turn Around,” by James Briscoe and Josh Every of Mosaic Fertilizer LLC—“Clean and Efficient Sulfuric Acid and Sulfur Dioxide Manufacture,” by Guy Cooper and Andres Mahecha-Botero of NORAM Engineering and Constructors LTD.—“Sulfuric Acid Plant Cooling Tower Improvements,” by Ryan Barbour, Herb Quinones and Tom Refi of GE Water & Process Technologies—“SO2 Emission Control to Low Levels at Rhodia Sulfuric Acid Plants,” Leonard Friedman and Samantha J. Friedman of Acid Engineering & Consulting, Inc.—“DuPont Acid Plant Operator Training,” by John Rodammer of DuPont

—“PSD Permitting for Greenhouse Gas Emissions in the Fertilizer Industry,” by Philip D. Cobb of Golder Associates Inc. Conference attendees enjoyed some social time as well. Each evening several companies held hospitality suites for the participants and their families to

network and catch up with one another. Suites offered delicious cuisine and refreshing beverages as well as activities including karaoke, face painting and magic. The 2013 Clearwater Conference will be held June 7-8, 2013. For more information, visit the conference website at www.aiche-cf.org. q

DuPont hosts Best Practices Workshop

Annual AIChE conference convenes in Clearwater

CONFERENCE REvIEW

Jeff Stout, left, and Richard Ochoa of Valero McKee enjoy a cruise on Lake Tahoe.

Attendees, including, from left, John Recar and Kirk Bailey of DuPont/MECS, Eric Legare of Tesoro Martinez, Jeannie Branzaru of DuPont, J. Castaneda of Chevron Hawaii and Randy Peterson of DuPont/STRATCO, were treated to a dinner cruise around Lake Tahoe.

Networking on a dinner cruise are, from left, George Wang of Rhodia Eco Services and Brian Christlieb of Philips66, Los Angeles.

From left, Sunil Kumar of Reliance, Qiang Zhang of DuPont and John Recar of DuPont/MECS catch up during the cruise around Lake Tahoe.

Steve Puricelli of MECS, third from left, fields a question during the Q & A session of the acid cooler design and maintenance workshop. Also pictured, from left, are Rick Davis of Davis & Associates Consulting, Bruce Shearer of International Water Specialist, Rusty Sage of Sage Inspections and Orlando Perez of OP & Associates-H2SO4 Consultants.

Kimre shared their company’s information with participants during the two-day event. Pictured in their booth, from left, are Mary Keenan, Frances Accursio, Linda Kravitz and Stephanie Gornail.

Jim Dougherty of Mosaic Co shared a hydrogen safety update with the participants of the sulfuric acid workshop.

Mary Brown of Rhodia Eco Services explained her company’s SO2 emissions control to participants of the 2012 AIChE Clearwater Convention.


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With a ten-year span since the first Australasia Sulfuric Acid Workshop back in 2001, this year’s 2012 workshop reached record numbers. Attendance at the Sulfuric Acid Today sponsored Australia workshop was over 100 people who convened on the island continent from over 17 countries to share ideas concerning sulfuric acid plants. The workshop, which was held from March 26-29, 2012 in Melbourne, hosted both plant personnel who produce sulfuric acid, and the workshop’s Co-Sponsors who provide products and services to the producing plants. The format of the workshop, with its mix of panel discussions, question and answer periods, Co-Sponsor booths and social activities, is designed to bring industry experts and producers together to share information and solutions to common issues. The conference agenda was largely user-defined. As part of the planning phase, plant personnel, who represent sulfuric acid producers from the metallurgic, spent acid and fertilizer industries, voted on the top 12 topics they wanted to discuss. These 12 topics comprised panel discussions, which often consisted of an initial presentation of a plant issue, and then feedback and open discussion among panelists and all conference participants. The panel discussions at the conference included the following topics:

— Heat exchangers, with the presentation, “Experiences of Recent Acid Cooler Fouling and Cleaning Method Utilized,” by Jarryd Knickel, of Incitec

— Acid Towers, with the presentations, “Installation and Removal of Candle Filters in an Absorption Tower,” by Mark Breen, of Nyrstar Hobart and “Recent use of VIP Unpacking System,” by Ross Kealy, of Incitec

— Maintenance of ESPs, with the presentation, “Current EMP issues and Proposed Repairs,” by Michael Morley, of Incitec

— Safety Issues and Incident Reviews, with the presentation “Hydrogen Safety in Sulfuric Acid Plants,” by

George Wang, of Rhodia Eco Services— Sulfur, including pit maintenance,

filtering, furnace and nozzles— Converters, with the presentation,

“Recent Converter Screening and Modifications,” by Ross Kealy, of Incitec

— Steam Equipment, including boilers, economizers and superheaters

— Gas Cleaning/Scrubbers, with the presentation, “Scrubbing Tower Maintenance,” by Abdul Hadi, of Federal Fertilizer & Chan CL, Malaya Acid Works

— On-line Condition & Corrosion Monitoring/On-line Gas Leak Repairs

— Preheat Techniques— Inspection Items, with the presentation,

“Process Inspection Program and Findings of Recent Shutdown,” by Franz Schnetler, of Incitec

— Acid Resistant Linings/Bricks/Mortars

Also part of the agenda was Co-Sponsor presentations, which focused on providing information that would be useful to the producing plants in resolving specialized plant concerns. Some of these topics included the sulfuric acid market outlook, operator training, engineering in dry climates, preventing acid cooler failures, upgrading acid plants, mist eliminators, mist precipitators, safety issues, polishing filters, catalysts and efficiency. No conference that promotes teamwork would be complete without some opportunities to socialize. In addition to the

welcome reception on the first evening of the workshop, the second evening consisted of a wine tasting event, where participants sampled Australian wine as well as received bottled wine as gifts. On the third and final evening, participants ascended the Eureka 89 Tower and socialized among panoramic views of Melbourne from the 89th floor. The evening also included door prizes and a casino night, where those who were feeling lucky indulged in games, including blackjack, craps, roulette and poker. The spirit of teamwork and working together to resolve common issues in sulfuric acid production was evident at this 10th anniversary event. To continue the momentum, Sulfuric Acid Today will host the next Australia conference in 2014. Planning for the U.S. version of the conference, the Sulfuric Acid Today Roundtable, is already underway. It will be held April 8-11, 2013 in Scottsdale, Ariz. For more information, please check the magazine’s website at www.h2so4today.com. q

Aussies and acid: Australia workshop marks a decade down under

Part of the agenda included Co-Sponsor presentations, which focused on providing information useful to the producing plants in resolving specialized plant concerns. Hannes Storch of Outotec presented a paper on sulfuric acid plant efficiency.

New to this year’s workshop, Co-Sponsors displayed their company’s products during the 2012 Australasia Sulfuric Acid Workshop. Mark Martin of Koch Knight LLC, left, shares information with Jakrapong Uchupalanun of Mahachai Chemicals Co.

Record attendance was reached for the 2012 version of the Australasia Sulfuric Acid Workshop. Participants from over 17 countries convened in Melbourne to share ideas concerning sulfuric acid plants.

Chairing the panel discussion on sulfur are, from left, Chris Coathupe of BHP Billiton, Keith Grant of Ravensdown, Peter Taylor of Minara and David Morgan of Orica.


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Faces & Places

p DuPont and MECS hosted a family dinner in conjunction with the convention for their clients and customers. Mack Barber, a consultant for the phosphate industry, and his wife, Lyla, enjoyed the evening with friends and family.

t Enjoying the wine tasting event hosted by Murrindindi Vineyards during the 2012 Australasia Sulfuric Acid Workshop in Melbourne, Australia, are, from left, Jason Phillips, Ricky Goldsmith, Tim Taylor and Mark Breen of Nrystar and Warren Ebbett of Ravensdown.

p Joe Jackson of Freeport-McMoRan, left, visits with Joseph Schofield of Ravensdown during the Casino Night held at the Eureka 89 Tower in Melbourne.

p Ross Forzatti of Hatch Associates, left, networks with Graeme Cousland of Begg, Cousland, center, and Peter Ballantyne of Ravensdown during the Casino Night held at the Eureka 89 Tower in Melbourne.

t Randy Charlot of CF Industries, center, visits with Darwin Passman of VIP International, left, and Hoss Maddry of VIP International during the MECS hospitality suite held in conjuntion with the convention.

t Enjoying the evening in Clearwater are, from left, John Orlando of NORAM, Rick Kreuser of RTK Technologies, Guy Cooper of NORAM, Alan Hampton and Mark Kresovsky of General Chemical and Andres Machecha-Botero of NORAM.

p Singing karaoke at MECS’ hospitality suite held in conjunction with the convention are, from left, Jeannie Branzaru of DuPont, Chris Winkler and John Horne of MECS Inc., Leif Bouffard of Hatch and Kirk Schall and Steve Puricelli of MECS Inc.

p Haldor Topsøe hosted a dinner at the Lobster Pot restaurant during the convention. Pictured on the left side are Sherry Nipper, Betty Polk, Beth McCrary, Doug McCrary of CCC Group Inc., and Vince Hayward. Pictured on the right side are Martin Nipper of CF Industries, Patrick Polk of Haldor Topsøe, Alan Hampton of General Chemical, Mark Kresovsky of General Chemical and Marie Vognsen of Haldor Topsøe.

p Rebecca Withnall of Ravensdown, left, was another lucky winner of door prizes donated by workshop Co-Sponsors. Michael Beltran of Beltran Technologies, center, and Marie Vognsen of Haldor Topsøe presented her gifts.

p Enjoying the wine tasting event hosted by Murrindindi Vineyards of the Yea Valley, Victoria, held in conjunction with the workshop are, from left, Chris Coathupe, Rick Leue and Andrew Clarke of BHP Billiton; Adrian Avery of VIP International; David Manczak of BHP Billiton; and Raphaelle DuBesset of Vale.

p Jan Hermans of Sulphurnet, left, visits with Michael Fenton of Chemetics, center, and Dan Freeman of SNC-Lavalin Fenco at the workshop’s Casino Night.

p Enjoying the workshop’s evening hospitality event are, from left, Rick Leue of BHP Billiton, Dean Truglio of Minara Resources, David Manczak of BHP Billiton and Darryl Dietman of Nyrstar.

p Participants from Incitec Pivot Ltd. enjoying the wine tasting event hosted by Murrindindi Vineyard sheld in conjunction with the workshop include, from left, Sarath Rupasinghe, Ross Kealy, Brian Corrie, Jarryd Knickel, Anil Raidoo, Michael Morley and Franz Schnetler.

t Raphaelle DuBesset of Vale, center, was a lucky winner of door prizes donated by workshop Co-Sponsors. Presenting the prizes are Ed Knoll of Acid Piping Technology, left, and Gabriel Mansson of Haldor Topsøe.

p Having fun during the Casino Night held at the Eureka 89 Tower in Melbourne are, from left, Adrian Avery of VIP International, Michael Beltran of Beltran Technologies, John Woodhead of Specialized Engineering Services and Tim Loete of MECS.

p Enjoying the Casino Night fun at the Eureka 89 Tower in Melbourne are, from left, Randy Stanfill of Weir Lewis Pumps and Ruth Stanfill, Angela Bridges and Darren Bridges of Specialized Engineering Services.

p Sulfuric Acid Today publisher Kathy Hayward enjoyed visiting with workshop participants during the wine tasting event hosted by Murrindindi Vineyards. Pictured are, from left, Mathew Ellen of Ravensdown, Peter Gaborit of James Walker Australia and Andy Krupa of Ravensdown.

p The Engineers’ Wives Club hosts a breakfast on Saturday morning during the AIChE Clearwater Convention to bring spouses and their families together to get to know one another and to welcome newcomers to the convention. Pictured from left to right are Donna Vo, Ann Greenwood and Joy Clark.

p Josh Every, left, and James Briscoe of Mosaic performed their crowd-pleasing rendition of ‘Baby Got Back’ during MECS’ hospitality suite held in conjunction with the AIChE convention.

p Catching up with one another at the convention are, from left, George Wang of Rhodia Eco Services, Becky Harris of VIP International, Howard Tenney of Tenney Co. and Jack Harris of VIP International.

new sulfuric acid plant in Chile receives environmental permitsCÓRDOBA, Argentina—Empresa Nacional de Acido S.A. (ENA) of Santiago, Chile recently received environ-mental permits that will allow the construction of a new sulfuric acid plant. The facility, which will use Haldor Topsøe technology, will be built in Laguna, in the Tara-paca state, and will have a production capacity of 250,000 metric tons per year of sulfuric acid with a concentration level of 98.5 percent. The plant also will have its own cogeneration power unit, which will consist of a steam turbine generator set able to produce 10 megawatts (MW) using process steam from the chemical plant, and a heat recovery steam gener-ator that will utilize the waste heat coming from the plant. There will be a 9,600-cubic-meter storage tank park that will allow distribution of the acid by land. ENA recently got the approval of the environmental impact assessment issued by the National Environment Ministry, which authorizes the construction of the $30 million project. The plant will produce the sulfuric acid necessary to supply for the mining operations in the north-ern area of the country, in the Tarapaca and Arica Regions. ENA expects to select the company that will perform the engineering, procurement and construction for the project during the third quarter of 2012. After 15 months of con-struction, the new Iquique Laguna plant is expected to be operational by mid-2014. For more information, please visit the Industrial Info Resources website, www.industrialinfo.com. q

Acid Plant Lining SpecialistsThorpe has been a recognized leader in the design and construction of acid plant refractory and acid-resistant

masonry linings for over 50 years. We specialize in evaluating and updating existing units to bring improved

lining performance and reliability. Thorpe develops new lining designs to suit the operating conditions,

size, geometry and needs of each unique application. Our in-house engineers and design specialists work in

conjunction with our experienced field crews to provide complete turnkey services for both maintenance and

capital projects.

3 KEYS TO RELIABILITY• Sulfur furnaces• Outlet ducts & jug

valves• Waste heat boiler

vestibules& tubesheets

• Acid towers• Acid pads• Pump tanks• Converters• Pits

APPLICATIONS• Proper Material Selection

• Engineered Lining Design

• Experienced InstallationCrews

PeoPle on the Move

Perez opens consulting firm Orlando Perez has recently left Che-metics after five years as director of acid technology. He is forming a consulting business that caters specifically to the sul-phuric acid industry. The new company, OP & Associates–H2SO4 Consultants Ltd, will begin accepting clients in Janu-ary 2013. Perez has ex-tensive experience in the design of acid plant process equipment and know-how in op-erations and main-tenance of acid plants from work-ing in a spent acid regeneration facil-ity for 15 years. He provided technical assistance to six acid plant sites, trouble-shooting process equipment, performing root cause failure analyses, mechanical integrity inspections, remaining life as-sessments, developing best practices, cap-turing and disseminating lessons learned, etc. Perez has more than 37 years experi-ence, with more than 19 in the sulfuric acid industry and 13 years in the design and

manufacture of heat transfer equipment. For more information, please con-tact Orlando Perez at [email protected].

unger joins sales team at acid Piping technology Acid Piping Technology, Inc. (APT) recently announced that Skip Unger has joined them as a sales engineer for the sulfuric acid plant market. With over 35 years experience in the industry, Unger brings tremen-dous knowledge and a commit-ment to custom-ers as he joins the APT team. For more information, con-tact Skip Unger at (636) 296-4668 or [email protected].

Bryan joins the roberts Co. Kevin Bryan, former manager of maintenance and engineering at Potash Corp. in Aurora, N.C., has joined The Roberts Company. Kevin holds a degree in mechanical engineering from Rutgers

University and is a licensed profes-sional engineer in North Carolina. Kevin started off his career work-ing with DuPont at their Savan-nah River Plant in Aiken, S.C., where he worked on the start-up of the Navy Nuclear Fuel Facility and was team leader for the design and installation of a pilot plasma isotope separation project. In 1989, Kevin joined the PCS Phosphate Aurora facility and worked through various engineering and maintenance management positions. He was involved with, and held overall re-sponsibility for, many of the major expan-sions at the Aurora facility. In his most recent position, he had responsibility for maintenance and engi-neering for the entire facility. Bryan has assumed the position of sales and busi-ness development manager for The Rob-erts Company and will be responsible for the sulfuric/phosphate industry. Please contact Kevin Bryan at [email protected] or (252) 355-9353 for more information. q

Kevin Bryan, The Roberts Company Sales and Business Development Manager

Skip Unger, Acid Piping Technology Sales Engineer

Orlando Perez, OP & Associates-H2SO4 Consultants Owner

BreaKing neWS


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aiChe presents 37th annual international Phosphate fertilizer and Sulfuric acid technology Conference CLEARWATER, Fla.—The Central Florida Chapter of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers will once again be holding their highly-anticipated Clearwater Convention, June 7-8, 2013. Held at the Sheraton Sand Key Resort, this event brings together industry insiders in a relaxed, fun-filled atmosphere to share their ideas concerning chemical process technology, specifically the production of phosphoric acid, phosphate fertilizers and sulfuric acid. For more information, please visit www.aiche-cf.org/

Sulphur & Sulphuric acid Conference 2013 announcedJOHANNESBURG, South Africa—The Southern African

Institute of Mining and Metallurgy recently announced the 4th Sulphur & Sulphuric Acid Conference, slated for April 3-4 at Sun City, Pilanesburg. The conference attracts industry leaders in the production, use and conversion of sulfur, sulfuric acid and SO2 abatement in metallurgical and other processes. The conference will be followed by a technical visit on April 5. The production of SO2 remains a pertinent topic in the South African industry and there is a need among producers, consumers, legislators and other leaders in the industry for a forum to discuss relevant issues on the topic. For more information, please visit www.saimm.co.za/saimm-events.

Sulfuric acid roundtable heads to Scottsdale for 2013COVI NGTON, La.—The Scottsdale Resort and Conference Center in Scottsdale, Arizona, will

serve as the location for the 2013 Sulfuric Acid Roundtable. Slated for April 8-11, 2013 this event, hosted by Sulfuric Acid Today and several Co-Sponsors, brings together industry professionals from around the world to discuss

maintenance issues in a relaxed, information-sharing atmosphere. Co-Sponsor presentations, Q&A sessions, panel discussions and hospitality events all provide ample opportunities to network with members of the sulfuric acid industry eager to share and learn from each other. For more information, please visit the event’s website www.acidroundtable.com or contact Kathy Hayward via email at [email protected].

oCP to host second SyMPhoS conferenceEL JADIDA, Morocco—OCP is pleased to announce the call for registration and papers for the second edition of SYMPHOS, to be held in Agadir, May 6-10, 2013. The SYMPHOS 2013 edition aims to host more than 1,200 par-ticipants from around the world. It will feature a rich program, com-bining plenary sessions, lectures, oral topical sessions, workshops, exhibitions and B-to-B meetings.

Various fields of the sector will be covered, including geology and phosphate mining methods; phos-phate beneficiation and handling; sulfur melting and sulfuric acid manufacturing; phosphoric acid manufacturing and processing; fertilizers manufacturing and new phosphate products; environment and sustainable development; by-product management and utiliza-tion (sludge, phosphogypsum); safety, industrial management and hygiene; environment and sustainable development; and corrosion prevention and materi-als engineering. An exhibition area with a capacity of 120 booths will be available for the companies wish-ing to present their services, latest technological advances and inno-vations to the professionals of the sector. Visits to the Jorf Lasfar and Khouribga sites are also being planned to coincide with the con-ference. For more information, please visit http://www.symphos.com/.q

MARK YOUR CALENDAR

Register On-Line Today! www.acidroundtable.com

Industry’s Premier Event for Networking & Sharing Best Practices™

The 2013 Sulfuric Acid Roundtable will offer...* Global Sulfuric Acid Market Outlook* Producing Plant Panel Discussions & Presentations* New Technology Developments* Safety Panel

All Inclusive Registration!Included In RegIstRatIon Fee:* Hotel Accommodations for 3 Nights (Beginning Monday, April 8 through Wednesday, April 10)

* All Meals and Evening Receptions

Sponsored By:

R o u n d T A b l e2013 Sulfuric AcidApril 8-11, 2013

scottsdale ResoRt and conFeRence centeR

scottsdale, aRIzona

Scottsdale Resort and Conference Center (above) in Scottsdale, Ariz., is the venue for the next Sulfuric Acid Roundtable. Participants can look forward to a western-themed BBQ at the resort (below).


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