Power Infrastructure Federal Industrial & Commercial

Brimstone Sulfur Symposium

How to Collect, Form and Ship 4.5 Million

Tonnes of Sulfur per Year
Johnny Johnson, VP of Technology
Dave Naulty, Project Manager
Dick Wissbaum, Technology Director
Continuing Growth of Qatar’s Gas Production & Processing

Multiple sour gas processing facilities will ultimately produce up to

12,000 tonnes/day of by-product sulfur
This requires proper collection, processing and shiploading of sulfur to
ensure uninterrupted RLC plants operation while meeting strict
environmental regulations

Therefore the CSF objectives are to:

 Establish
a robust, safe and
environmentally friendly facility
 Operate continuously all year
 Ensurecontinuous LNG, GTL, natural gas
and NGL production from RLC

Brimstone Sulfur Symposium 2010

POWER I N F R AS T R U C T U R E F E D E R AL I N D U S T R I AL & C O M M E R C I AL
Common Sulfur Berth/Jetty Area

Brimstone Sulfur Symposium 2010

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CSF Scope of Facilities

FOR MOLTEN SULFUR:

 Multiple producers @ up to 12,000 TPD sulfur
 More than 30 km of electrically-heated molten sulfur collection pipelines
 Molten sulfur storage & conditioning system
 Emergency sulfur blocking system

FOR SOLID SULFUR:

 Sulfur forming system
 Sulfur conveying & storage
 Sulfur shiploading system

Brimstone Sulfur Symposium 2010

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Redundancy and Reliability Provisions for Sulfur Facilities

 Two 100% capacity molten sulfur collection pipelines

 Two 100% capacity electric heating tubes per pipeline
7 SEEHT circuits along each pipeline
 Twomolten sulfur storage tanks @ Berth Area & with each Producer
(provides combined 7 days storage)
 Two spare granulator feed pumps
 Two spare granulators
 Two 100% product storage conveyors
 Two 100% stacker / reclaimers
 Solid product storage building (Up to 21 days capacity)
 Two 100% capacity shiploaders
 Two 100% Steam Boilers
Brimstone Sulfur Symposium 2010
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Major Project Equipment Suppliers

Equipment Supplier

Pipeline SEEHT system Tyco Thermal Controls, U.S.

Molten sulfur pumps Friatec, Germany

Granulators Enersul, Canada
Conveyors ETS Group, South Africa
Stacker/Reclaimers ThyssenKrupp Robins U.S.
Shiploaders Sandvik, Austria
Distributed control system Emerson Process Management,
Canada

Sulfur blocking system Kinder Morgan Devco, U.S.

Brimstone Sulfur Symposium 2010

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Sulfur Pipeline & Producers Layout

Brimstone Sulfur Symposium 2010

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CSF Simplified Process Flow Diagram

Brimstone Sulfur Symposium 2010

POWER I N F R AS T R U C T U R E F E D E R AL I N D U S T R I AL & C O M M E R C I AL
CSF Simplified Process Flow Diagram

Brimstone Sulfur Symposium 2010

POWER I N F R AS T R U C T U R E F E D E R AL I N D U S T R I AL & C O M M E R C I AL
CSF Simplified Process Flow Diagram

Brimstone Sulfur Symposium 2010

POWER I N F R AS T R U C T U R E F E D E R AL I N D U S T R I AL & C O M M E R C I AL
CSF Simplified Process Flow Diagram

Brimstone Sulfur Symposium 2010

POWER I N F R AS T R U C T U R E F E D E R AL I N D U S T R I AL & C O M M E R C I AL
CSF Simplified Process Flow Diagram

Brimstone Sulfur Symposium 2010

POWER I N F R AS T R U C T U R E F E D E R AL I N D U S T R I AL & C O M M E R C I AL
CSF Simplified Process Flow Diagram

Brimstone Sulfur Symposium 2010

POWER I N F R AS T R U C T U R E F E D E R AL I N D U S T R I AL & C O M M E R C I AL
CSF Simplified Process Flow Diagram

Brimstone Sulfur Symposium 2010

POWER I N F R AS T R U C T U R E F E D E R AL I N D U S T R I AL & C O M M E R C I AL
CSF Simplified Process Flow Diagram

Brimstone Sulfur Symposium 2010

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Overview of the Common Sulfur Facilities Located in the Berth Area

Brimstone Sulfur Symposium 2010

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Lesson Learned: Steam System Design

In refineries and gas plants

10’s to 100’s of thousands of lb/hr steam
systems
In gas plant, most of the steam may be produced
in the SRU/TGCU
Heat Loss in steam jacketed and traced
equipment and piping is estimated and included
in the steam balance, say 5% of Total
Standard steam supply and condensate return
details are used based on past experience
Brimstone Sulfur Symposium 2010
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Lesson Learned: Steam System Design

Initial
Single-Level Steam System designed for maximum
4 barg operating pressure (say 60 psig, 425°K)
OK - 305°F, ~150 °C
Provides good temperature for molten sulfur pipe and
equipment jacketing, molten sulfur storage tank heating,
for granulation fines remelt, and for remelt of frozen
components if needed.
No other large steam producers or users!
Boiler Capacity 6700 lb/hr
Engineers/Designers not familiar with this situation!

Brimstone Sulfur Symposium 2010

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Lesson Learned: CSF Steam Requirements and Situation

No SRU - But two storage tanks and plenty of molten

sulfur piping and equipment

Use of all electric heating and tracing deemed not

practical

Electric-Heated Steam Boilers chosen

Jacketed piping required by project specifications and

standards (vs. Controtrace®)

Brimstone Sulfur Symposium 2010

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Lesson Learned: Boiler Sizing

EstimatedJacketed Piping Lengths and calculated worst

case ambient heat loss
Determined Equipment Jacketing, Tank Heating Coils
and Tracing needs

Not all vendor information finalized when Boilers were to

be ordered
What design margin should be specified?

What is missing?

Brimstone Sulfur Symposium 2010

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Lesson Learned: Jacketed Sulfur Piping Heat Loss

Measure “Actual” Jacketed Piping Lengths and calculate

worst case ambient heat loss
Designers Comments:
Steam Jacketing only needed if there is no flow.
Once sulfur is flowing it will keep things hot.
The steam is the only thing exposed to the ambient
temperature and it takes care of the heat loss.

What was missed?

Brimstone Sulfur Symposium 2010

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Lesson Learned: Jacketed Sulfur Piping is really a Double
Pipe Heat Exchanger

Re-calculated total “heat transfer”

• To ambient
• To flowing sulfur
• Including heat loss from all steam and condensate
equipment and piping!!!

Problem Solved??? NO!

Brimstone Sulfur Symposium 2010

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Lesson Learned: Jacketed Sulfur Piping is really a Double
Pipe Heat Exchanger
Remember, Granulators require a specific feed temperature
for premium quality granule production

The double-pipe heat exchanger (jacketed piping) from the

pumps/coolers to the granulators brought the sulfur back to
steam temperature - say 305F vs 255F to 275F required.
This delta on 12,000 TPD far exceeded Boiler Capacity

Provided a 4 barg steam letdown into a lower pressure header

for granulator feed piping to operate at 1.4 to 2.2 barg (257F-
275F, 125-135C, 398-403K) to match specified granulator feed
temperature range.

Brimstone Sulfur Symposium 2010

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SEEHT System Representation

Pipeline SEEHT System

 SEEHT selected for
technical and economic
merit
 System divided into 2
multiple control circuits
 Fiberoptic temperature
monitoring provides profile
of the entire pipeline
heating
 Failedcables will be
replaced without disturbing
the system

Brimstone Sulfur Symposium 2010

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SEEHT Pipeline

Brimstone Sulfur Symposium 2010

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Lesson Learned: SEEHT Pipeline

Temperature control at turndown

 The
pipeline operated at well below minimum design flow for the first several
months of operation
 Temperature control problems were experienced:
• Control thermocouples generally just downstream of an input from a
operating SRU tie-in
• At “zero” sulfur flow – FINE
• At greater than minimum design flow - FINE
• At Zero to Minimum – with hot sulfur being received from a producer
- Temperature controller shuts off power and at very low flow
- Sulfur freezes before it hits the next SEEHT control loop (up to 5 km)
 Second downstream TIC needed to maintain hot pipeline

Brimstone Sulfur Symposium 2010

POWER I N F R AS T R U C T U R E F E D E R AL I N D U S T R I AL & C O M M E R C I AL
Enersul GXm-1 Sulfur Granulator

Enersul GXm-1 Granulators

50 TPH capacity per Granulator
Currently used by Qatargas
13 Granulators at full development

Brimstone Sulfur Symposium 2010

POWER I N F R AS T R U C T U R E F E D E R AL I N D U S T R I AL & C O M M E R C I AL
Enersul GX-1 Granulators

Play Video

Brimstone Sulfur Symposium 2010

POWER I N F R AS T R U C T U R E F E D E R AL I N D U S T R I AL & C O M M E R C I AL
Enersul GXm-1 Granulators

Brimstone Sulfur Symposium 2010

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Aerial View of Berth Construction

Brimstone Sulfur Symposium 2010

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Sulfur Storage Building

Play Video

Brimstone Sulfur Symposium 2010

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Sulfur Storage Building

Brimstone Sulfur Symposium 2010

POWER I N F R AS T R U C T U R E F E D E R AL I N D U S T R I AL & C O M M E R C I AL
Sulfur Storage Building

Brimstone Sulfur Symposium 2010

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TKRI Stacker/Reclaimer Representation

TKRI Stacker/Reclaimers
3 modes of operation:
Stack / Bypass / Reclaim
 Stack & Bypass: 700 TPH
 Reclaim: 1,500 TPH

Brimstone Sulfur Symposium 2010

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Stacker/Reclaimer

Brimstone Sulfur Symposium 2010

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Sandvik Quadrant Shiploader

Quadrant Shiploaders (2)

 Designed working envelope to load 60,000 dwt vessels
 Capacity 3,700 TPH
Brimstone Sulfur Symposium 2010
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Sandvik Quadrant Shiploader

Brimstone Sulfur Symposium 2010

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Foundations for Second Ship Loader

Brimstone Sulfur Symposium 2010

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Sulfur Blocking Area

Brimstone Sulfur Symposium 2010

POWER I N F R AS T R U C T U R E F E D E R AL I N D U S T R I AL & C O M M E R C I AL
Sulfur Blocking Area

Brimstone Sulfur Symposium 2010

POWER I N F R AS T R U C T U R E F E D E R AL I N D U S T R I AL & C O M M E R C I AL
Aerial View of Berth Construction

Brimstone Sulfur Symposium 2010

POWER I N F R AS T R U C T U R E F E D E R AL I N D U S T R I AL & C O M M E R C I AL
Aerial View of Berth Construction

There is nothing “common” about the Common Sulfur Facility!

Brimstone Sulfur Symposium 2010

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…and it all comes down to this:

Brimstone Sulfur Symposium 2010

POWER I N F R AS T R U C T U R E F E D E R AL I N D U S T R I AL & C O M M E R C I AL