New Process for the Removal of H₂ S from Natural Gas

The current method for the removal of H₂S from natural gas is amine absorption followed by the Modified Claus Process, which is expensive and requires a plant site environment. Quite often natural gas is found with low levels of H₂S (less than 10 tonnes of sulfur per day) that would be uneconomical to remove using the Modified Claus Process and is therefore not recovered. This new process, which is expected to be skid mountable and moveable from site to site, offers an efficient and cost-effective means for purifying gas streams containing H₂S concentrations ranging from less than 1% to more than 10%. The process uses H₂SO₄ to extinction and operates at pipeline pressures, thereby removing the need for gas recompression. The process is also energy efficient as it is exothermic overall, and it makes sulfur recovery of less than ten tonnes a day economical.