RESULT 241

US 95.519/2D.H05
IEA
OECD Waste heat recovery
energy efficiency in a chemicals plant

Waste heat recovery in

a sulphuric acid plant
Summary
The processing of
phosphate ore into
phosphoric acid requires
large amounts of
sulphuric acid and steam.
The steam can be used to
generate electrical power
for resale. The scale of the
processes involved means
that there is great scope
for energy and cost
savings. This project
involved the installation
of a heat recovery system
to increase steam
production at two
sulphuric acid plants in Highlights
Aurora, North Carolina.
Fuel oil consumption has • Simple payback
fallen by 75%, emissions period of 3 years
have been reduced, and
power production • Annual savings of
increased by 10 MW. USD 5.7 million
This project received a • Fuel oil savings of 4.8
Special Recognition million litres/year
Award from the US
Department of Energy's
Energy Efficiency and
Renewable Energy awards
programme in 1994.

Heat recovery system at the

plant in Aurora.

Centre for the Analysis and Dissemination of Demonstrated Energy Technologies

Aim of the Project
The project was originally
intended to produce additional
steam at 11.4 bar (150 psig) for
use in two sulphuric acid plants
owned by PCS Posphate
Company, Inc. Due to plant
conditions and operational
benefits however, the facility is
currently being run to produce
4.5 bar (50 psig) steam.
Nonetheless, it retains the
capability to produce 11.4 bar
steam with minor modifi-
cations. PCS Posphate
Company, the project's
financiers, required that the
facility have no adverse impact
on plant emissions, production
rates, or reliability. The
company has continuously
worked to increase energy
efficiency throughout its
operation.
The Principle
The heat recovery system
raises the temperature at which
absorption of SO 3, and the
addition of water, takes place
during the production of sul-
phuric acid. By operating at
these higher temperatures, the
heat of absorption and dilution
can be used to generate steam
instead of being rejected to a
cooling tower.
The change which makes this
possible is the discovery by
Monsanto Enviro-Chem that
several commercial alloys are
resistant to corrosion at high
temperatures if sulphuric acid
strengths are kept at greater
than 99%. Through studies and
process design changes,
Monsanto developed a way to
operate in the narrow band of
acceptable temperatures and
strengths, without degrading
plant performance.
The heat recovery system
replaces the normal inter-pass
tower with a two-stage
absorbing tower, a recirculating
pump, heat exchangers and a
boiler. The tower is made from
stainless steel and contains
ceramic packing. Gas
containing sulphur trioxide
leaves the converter system and
enters the heat recovery tower
near the bottom. It passes
upwards through two packed
beds and a mist eliminator
before leaving the tower at the
top. The lower stage performs
most of the absorption and is
run at a temperature necessary
to generate the steam. The
upper stage uses a low flow of
cool acid to provide trim
absorption so the tower can
Figure 1: The heat recovery system.
Gas exit
Cool sulphuric acid
Water
Sulphuric acid
Steam
Boiler
Pump
meet emission targets. A
special high efficiency
distributor system is used in
both stages because the system
is operating very close to
chemical equilibrium limits.
The Situation
At the PCS Phosphate plant, a
distributed control system was
included as part of the heat
recovery system project. This
system was expanded to
include the unmodified parts of
the plant in order to minimise
problems in coordinating oper-
ation of the original and new
sections. Instrumentation had
to be refined to allow control in
the tight tolerances required.
Redundant concentration ana-
lyzers are used to ensure acid
strengths are maintained within
the narrow operating range.
Mist eliminator
Acid distributors
Packed bed
Acid distributors
Packed bed
SO3 rich gas inlet
Heat recovery tower
With the Monsanto heat
recovery system, the amount of
heat recovered from the sul-
phuric acid plant increases
from 66% to 89% with no
additional sulphur or fossil fuel
consumption. An additional
131,660 kg (290,000 pounds)
per hour of 4.5 bar (50 psig)
steam is produced from the two
plants. This additional steam
production has practically
eliminated the need for two
package boilers that were oper-
ated as needed for process
steam requirements, and
occasionally to increase elec-
tricity generation. These
boilers, both rated at 45,400 kg
(100,000 pounds) of steam per
hour, are now only operated
when a plant is down for major
maintenance.
This heat recovery process
combines improvements in
controls, materials, distributor
design, and extensions of
chemical properties. It effect-
ively replaces one section of
Sulphur
burner
Main
compressor
Sulphur
Drying
tower
Air
HRS Diluter
preheater
Drying tower
acid cooler
Product
Dilution
cooler
Dilution tank
Dilution water
Drying tower
pump tank
Figure 2: This schematic shows how the heat recovery system works.
the plant. Over 25% of the heat
available from converting
sulphur to sulphuric acid is due
to the absorption of sulphur
trioxide and dilution with
water. Before the new instal-
lation was in place, all of this
heat was used to preheat boiler
feed water, superheat steam, or
was rejected to the cooling
towers. Now most of this heat
generates usable steam.
With the reduced operation of
the package boilers this project
also reduced carbon dioxide
and sulphur dioxide emissions
from the facility, and blow-
down discharges to the Pamlico
River. The increase in power
production capacity of 10 MW
has brought the total capacity
up to 40 MW. As this addi-
tional electrical power is sold to
Carolina Power and Light,
other power generators need to
run less and therefore produce
less pollution.
Steam to
superheater
Superheater
To stack
Super Converter
heater
H2O
Air Economisers
Hrs heater
Boiler
Drying tower
acid cooler
Dilution water
HRS boot Final tower
pump tank
HRS tower Final tower
Primary heat
recovery boiler Steam to users
The additional steam has
allowed greater process flexi-
bility, which has made it easier
for production to meet market
demands. It has also reduced
the need for the forced produc-
tion of material which must
then be sold at a loss. The
automation systems installed as
part of the project have also
improved process control and
record keeping, and have
allowed the sulphuric plants to
be run more efficiently.
The Company
PCS Phosphate, formerly
Texasgulf Inc., is a chemical
producing and mining company
based in North Carolina. PCS
Phosphate is owned by Potash
Corporation of Saskatchewan
Inc. (PCS) and operates
phosphate chemical plants and
phosphate mines. The Aurora
facility is a phosphate mine and
chemical processing plant that
employs approximately 1,200
people.
Heat exchangers
Hot Cold Cold
Economiser
Economics
Host Organisation Information
The additional steam produced PCS Phosphate Co., Inc. Organisation
by the heat recovery system has P.O. 48 CADDET - USA
reduced the steam required Aurora, NC 27806 Oak Ridge National
from the oil-fired package USA Laboratory
boilers. In the six months since Tel.: +1-919-322-8237 P.O. Box 2008
the second heat recovery sys- Fax: +1-919-322-8234 Oak Ridge, TN 37831-8152
tem was installed, fuel oil Contact: J. Robinson USA
usage has decreased by 75%. Tel.: +1-615-576-8152
Fuel is being saved at a rate of Fax: +1-615-576-7572
4.8 million litres (1.3 million Manufacturing and Contact: Dr M. A. Brown
gallons) per year. In addition, Engineering
power production has increased Organisation
by an average of 10 MW. Total Monsanto Enviro-Chem
savings attributable to the heat Systems, Inc.
recovery system project are P.O. Box 14547
estimated to be USD 5.7 St. Louis, MO 63178
million per year. Initial invest- USA
ment in the project was Tel.: +1-314-275-5700
USD 17.3 million, giving a Fax: +1-314-275-5701
simple payback period of three Contact: J. Shafer
years. All the financing for the
project was provided by PCS
Phosphate.

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* IEA: International Energy Agency
OECD: Organisation for Economic
Co-operation and Development

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This brochure is printed on 100% chlorine-free bleached paper August 1996