Union Carbide says a continuous sulfur dioxide removal system it has developed for refineries, gas processing plants, and coal burning power plants is 99% effective.

G.L. Ehrens of Union Carbide Chemicals & Plastics Co. Inc., Danbury, Conn., said the CanSolv system can be installed as a retrofit to flue gas systems or designed into new construction.

He said the process' recovery rates are well above the 70-90% that can be achieved with conventional limestone based scrubber systems now in use, capital costs are 30% lower, operating costs are 30-60% lower, and it requires only 20% of the space of a limestone recovery system. The process also recovers sulfur.

Union Carbide has demonstrated the process at a pilot plant added to Suncor Inc.'s Fort McMurray, Alta., oilsands plant. The 2,000 kw plant processed a 7,000 cfm flue gas slipstream from boilers. Ehrens said, "Successful completion of 6 months of pilot plant operations convinces us that this technology is one of the most significant developments to emerge from Union Carbide's 60 year experience in developing gas treating processes."

The company is working to adapt the process for nitrogen dioxide and carbon dioxide removal.

Last September the U.S. Department of Energy chose the process for a grant in the fourth round of its Clean Coal Technology demonstration program. The process will be demonstrated at Aluminum Co. of America's Newburgh, Ind., generating plant starting in 1994.

Union Carbide said the process uses a thermally regenerable organic amine salt as the absorbent with no degeneration of the absorbent and virtually no waste disposal problem. Limestone based systems generate large volumes of sludge that must be dumped in landfills.

Union Carbide also said the solvent remains a homogeneous liquid through the process cycle and shows no tendency to precipitate solids. As a result, there is no equipment erosion due to abrasion, the fast reaction time allows for a small absorber size, there is no scaling of the absorber and gas ducts, and solids handling problems are eliminated.

Copyright 1991 Oil & Gas Journal. All Rights Reserved.

UNION CARBIDE CLAIMS 99% EFFECTIVENESS FOR FLUE GAS SCRUBBER

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