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Proposal description

Activity Collaboration between the Pakistan ordinance factory

(POF) and the university of Engineering and
technology Peshawar in order to improve in the
chemical process of the sulphuric acid production
plant.

title of the proposal Design and development of Oleum and Sulphuric Acid
Manufacturing Plant having double absorption system
utilizing the existing single absorption-based plant.

main problem SOx emissions

vision to develop knowledge, technology, and capability to
manufacture/improve our chemical process
industries.
phase 1 project(short): A slight process modification will be introduced to
reduce the SOx emissions in the overall composition
of the tail gas
problem with the plant The main issue with the new acid plant is that it emits
large amount of SOx into the environment, i.e. SOX
are not perfectly absorbed in an acid absorption
column. Essentially SO3 is absorbed in a concentrated
sulphuric acid solution to produce oleum. The exact
chemical composition of sulphur oxide gases emitted
from the acid absorption column was not known to us
but one can assume that it would be SO2 gas as it
may not easily absorb in concentrated sulphuric acid
solutions. On the other hand, water can absorb SO2
gas easily. Beside SOx, we should be aware that large
amount of air mixture containing oxygen and nitrogen
is also present in overall gaseous compositions.

Moreover, the humidity of The Wah city is usually

high whereas SOx gases are stable in the troposphere
(0-10km) region. This coexistence of both SOx and
moisture in the atmosphere is infectious to the local
population and vegetation. Thus an immediate
process modification is needed in the exiting acid
plant in order to limit the SOx emissions. The current
production capacity (10 metric tons per day) is
enough for the current defense needs however it was
also agreed that sulphuric acid is in high demand and
thus the management may consider proposals to
increase the acid production capacity
reasons for the sox emissions
1) The first issue is with the sulphur combustion. Every effort
is made to inject a clean dried air to the combustion zone for
the oxidation of sulphur (S + O2 → SO2). In reality it is not
possible to clean air from all types of particulates and
gaseous substances. This may cause slippages in oxidation
process forming different type of sulphur oxide gases

2) Moreover, un burnt sulphur also exist in a system.

In any case, the whole set of gaseous species passes over
three bed catalyst packing to produce SO3 gas
as much as possible. The main problem might be in the
catalytic converter as it produces less SO3. It is
very common that the active sites of vanadium oxide
catalyst are being held by the passive species. The
third catalyst bed of the converter is always under stress and
here the deterioration of the conversion sites is much
quicker.

3) Finally,
the third concern is that all these gases passes through an
absorption column to absorb SO3 in sulphuric
acid solution. Since it contains a mixture of gases therefore
the proper absorption is not possible.
Therefore, the unabsorbed gases end up into the
atmosphere.
solutions
1) Increasing the concentration of the oxygen in an air feed
in order to expand the sulphur burning. The high
concentration of oxygen means that there will be less
nitrogen in a gas feed. The rate of burning will improve and
also the volume percent of SO2 in a gaseous mixture will be
much higher when a normal air is used for combustion. The
catalyst bed in a catalytic converter will have more chance of
interaction with SO2. We believe that overall more SO3 will
be formed when high concentration of oxygen is used for
combustion

2) The rate of SO3 formation can be increased by altering the

shape and size of the catalyst
presently being used in the third bed of the catalytic
converter. The size of the cylindrical
catalyst which is also used in the previous two beds of
converter is comparatively small to
catalyst being used in private sector sulphuric acid industries
of Pakistan. The load of
volumetric flow rate to the surface areas of the catalyst has
usually enormous and thus increases
the rate of chemical reactions. In short more SO3 will be
formed in a catalytic converter and
absorption for making oleum will be possible with less
emission of SO2 in the atmosphere.

3) Installation of an independent water absorption column

can absorb the leaving SOx gases. The
actual absorption capacity needs to be determined.
Sulfurous acid (SO2 absorption in water) has
many applications and can sold out in an open market.