Sulfur dioxide construction materials

Uses. In construction materials manufacture of steel, aluminum, and magnesium as a scrubbing agent to remove sulfur dioxide emissions from smokestacks manufacmre of glass, paper, and industrial chemicals in fungicides, insecticides, and lubricants... 

A plant is to manufacture butadiene sulfone at the rate of 1250 lb/hr from liquid sulfur dioxide and butadiene to be recovered from a crude C4 mixture as starting materials. Construct a flowsheet for the process according to the following description. 

The lithium sulfur dioxide and the lithium thionyl chloride systems are specialty batteries. Both have liquid cathode reactants where the electrolyte solvent is the cathode-active material. Both use polymer-bonded carbon cathode constructions. The Li-S02 is a military battery, and the Li-SOCl2 system is used to power automatic meter readers and for down-hole oil well logging. The lithium primary battery market is estimated to be about 1.5 billion in 2007. 

Both the lithium sulfur dioxide (Li-SO and lithium thionyl chloride (Li-SOCy cells may be classified as liquid cathode systems. In these systems, S02 and SOCl2 function as solvents for the electrolyte, and as the active materials at the cathode to provide voltage and ampere capacity. As liquids, these solvents permeate the porous carbon cathode material. Lithium metal serves as the anode, and a polymer-bonded porous carbon is the cathode current collector in both systems. Both cells use a Teflon-bonded acetylene black cathode structure with metallic lithium as the anode. The Li-S02 is used in a spirally wound, jelly-roll construction to increase the surface area and improve... 

Steeps are large tanks that may be constructed of any material resistant to the corrosive action of solutions of sulfur dioxide and lactic acid at pH 3 1, but stainless steel construction is now the most common. Steep tanks will vary in size and number depending on the capacity of the facility. It is common in newer US facilities for tanks to hold 250-600 metric tons (10000-25000 bushels), but tanks as small as 60 metric tons (2500 bushels) of com are still in use in some plants, with even smaller tanks being used in some other countries. The number of tanks in each separate steep battery varies, ranging from 6 to over 50. 

Air pollution sources in the United States and Canada currently emit more than 25 million tons of sulfur dioxide each year. SO2 and wet acidic deposition are believed to cause damage to aquatic life, crops, forests, and materials. The effects on materials include damages to common construction materials including galvanized steel (zinc), paint, copper, building stones and mortar, as well as damages to cultural or historic objects and buildings. 

The initial laboratory investigation of the process now being piloted at the ASARCO El Paso plant involved bench scale evaluations of 19 different primary sulfur dioxide reduction catalysts. Also, fixed-bed and fluid-bed catalysis were compared, and various construction materials were evaluated in the corrosive hydrogen sulfide and sulfur vapor atmosphere generated in gas phase reduction of sulfur dioxide. 

Service conditions must be defined to properly specify materials of construction for handling sulfur dioxide. It is customary, however, to use carbon steel for dry sulfur dioxide at ambient temperatures. Reference should be made to the latest edition of the ASME Code, Section VIII, Division 1 for vessels, and to the latest edition... 

Moist sulfur dioxide is corrosive to carbon steel therefore, other materials of construction have to be considered in this case. A source of data on the corrosivity of sulfur dioxide to various materials is the Corrosion Data Survey, published by the National Association of Corrosion Engineers suppliers of liquid sulfur dioxide are another source [6]. 

This test method is a qualitative one for hydrogen sulfide (H2S) and sulfur dioxide (SO2). It should not be considered quantitative. It gives an indication of the presence of H2S or SO2, or both, which may cause objectionable odors or be corrosive to certain materials of construction. 

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