Thermal damage of sulfur processed chamber under Claus operating reaction conditions—A case study

The sulfur from acid gas and sour gas is recovered to produce useful sulfur products. The claus reaction is industrially important process to recover sulfur from corrosive acid and sour gases. To achieve claus reaction, high temperature reactor is utilized under controlled conditions. The Claus combustion reaction heater made of 94% alumina refractory bricks were damaged under ideal equilibrium operating conditions. The first principle mathematical model was developed to measure the temperature profiles at hot face bricks and its interfaces to predict outer steel surface temperature. The maximum outer steel wall surface temperature was measured as 548.6 °C using thermograph experiments and compared against the predicted temperature. Large variations in temperature differences have confirmed that the refractory wall was damaged due to abnormal reactions. This thermal damage is discussed and presented with various evidences from visual inspection. The hot face wall bricks, matrix blocks and orifice throat were damaged and presented by macroscopic visual inspection. However, hardness of the steel shell is within specified limit. Therefore, the refractory repair inside the reactor and thermal insulation of external shell has been proposed to prevent steel shell from creep, graphitization, and high temperature oxidization and corrosion damages.