Sulfur dioxide smelters

Sulfuric acid is the most important sulfur-containing intermediate product. More than 85% of the sulfur consumed in the world is either converted to sulfuric acid or produced direcdy as such (see Sulfuric acid and sulfur trioxide). Worldwide, well over half of the sulfuric acid is used in the manufacture of phosphatic fertilizers and ammonium sulfate for fertilizers. The sulfur source may be voluntary elemental, such as from the Frasch process recovered elemental from natural gas or petroleum or sulfur dioxide from smelter operations. 

Paper Products. Paper (qv) products account for about 2% of sulfur demand. The largest single segment of demand is in the manufacture of wood pulp by the sulfite process (see Pulp). In this process, the main sulfur intermediate is sulfur dioxide, which is generally produced at the plant site by burning elemental sulfur. Some sulfur dioxide, however, is produced as a by-product at smelter operations, purified andUquefied, and shipped to the pulp mills. The sulfur dioxide is converted to sulfurous acid, and the salt of this acid is a principal component of the cooking Hquor for the sulfite process. 

The absorption of sulfur dioxide in alkaline (even weakly alkaline) aqueous solutions affords sulfites, bisulfites, and metabisulfites. The chemistry of the interaction of sulfur dioxide with alkaline substances, either in solution, slurry, or soHd form, is also of great technological importance in connection with air pollution control and sulfur recovery (25,227,235—241). Even weak bases such as 2inc oxide absorb sulfur dioxide. A slurry of 2inc oxide in a smelter can be used to remove sulfur dioxide and the resultant product can be recycled to the roaster (242). 

Double-Absorption Plants. In the United States, newer sulfuric acid plants ate requited to limit SO2 stack emissions to 2 kg of SO2 per metric ton of 100% acid produced (4 Ib /short ton Ib = pounds mass). This is equivalent to a sulfur dioxide conversion efficiency of 99.7%. Acid plants used as pollution control devices, for example those associated with smelters, have different regulations. This high conversion efficiency is not economically achievable by single absorption plants using available catalysts, but it can be attained in double absorption plants when the catalyst is not seriously degraded. 

Scmbbers for removing sulfur dioxide from smelter off-gases have been under development for many years. They are widely used in Japan. The calcium sulfate (gypsum) obtained from this process is suitable feed for waUboard production (see Calcium compound, calcium sulfate Sulfur removal and recovery). 

Sulfur Dioxide, Spray Towers Flue gases and offgases from sulfuric acid plants contain less than 0.5 percent SO9 smelter gases like those from ore processing plants may contain 8 percent. The high-concentration streams are suitable for the manufacture of sulfuric acid. The low concentrations usually are regarded as contaminants to be destroyed or recovered as elemental siilfur by, for example, the Claus process. 

Sulfur Dioxide Emission Rates from Primary Copper Smelters... 

Modem smelters using good industrial practices are able to achieve the following in terms of pollutant loads (all values are expressed on an annualized basis) hydrogen fluoride, 0.2 to 0.4 kg/t total fluoride, 0.3 to 0.6 kg/t particulates, 1 kg/t sulfur dioxide, 1 kg/t and nitrogen oxides, 0.5 kg/t. CF4 emissions should be less than 0.1 kg/t. 

It may be perceived that a continuous, sulfur dioxide-rich stream can be produced if the smelting and converting operations of conventional technology can be combined in one continuous operation, and this has been attempted in the Noranda process. However, in the largest present-day installation subscribing to this process, the units are used primarily as smelters, with the conversion implemented in separate, conventional converters. 

Hydrometallurgy has frequently been praised for not having any highly adverse impact on the environment. The problems associated with sulfur dioxide emission to the atmosphere from the roasters and the smelters of sulfidic sources have created much interest in treating these resources by hydrometallurgical methods. Moreover, the extreme amount of effort that has gone into the development of hydro-based processes for the sulfidic sources... 

Primary copper processing results in air emissions, process wastes, and other solid-phase wastes. Particulate matter and sulfur dioxide are the principal air contaminants emitted by primary copper smelters. Copper and iron oxides are the primary constituents of the particulate matter, but other oxides, such as arsenic, antimony, cadmium, lead, mercury, and zinc, may also be present, with metallic sulfates and sulfuric acid mist. Single-stage electrostatic precipitators are widely used in the primary copper industry to control these particulate emissions. Sulfur oxides contained in the off-gases are collected, filtered, and made into sulfuric acid. 

Newer secondary recovery plants use lead paste desulfurization to reduce sulfur dioxide emissions and waste sludge generation during smelting. Battery paste containing lead sulfate and lead oxide is desulfurized with soda ash to produce market-grade sodium sulfate solution. The desulfurized paste is processed in a reverberatory furnace. The lead carbonate product may then be treated in a short rotary furnace. The battery grids and posts are processed separately in a rotary smelter. 

Cominco [Consolidated Mining Smelting Company] A process for absorbing sulfur dioxide from smelting operations. The sulfur dioxide is absorbed in an aqueous solution of ammonium sulfite regeneration is by acidification with sulfuric acid. The ammonium sulfate byproduct is sold. Operated at the Cominco smelter at Trail, Canada, and at other smelters and sulfuric acid plants in the United States. Licensed by the Olin Mathieson Corporation. The name has been applied also to a lead extraction process. 

Hanisch-Schroder A process for scrubbing sulfur dioxide from smelter gases using water. Developed in 1884 and still in use in 1950, although it was probably obsolete by 1990. It required 100 to 200 tons of water for each ton of sulfur recovered. 

Sulfidine A process for removing sulfur dioxide from smelter gases by reaction with a suspension of xylidene in water. Developed by the Gesellschaft fiir Chemische Industrie, Basel and Metallgesellschaft, Frankfurt, and used in Germany in the 1930s now probably obsolete. 

Carbonyl sulfide is an intermediate in this reaction. A mixture of sulfur dioxide and oxygen was blown into the bottom of coke-fired reduction furnace and sulfur vapor condensed from the off-gases. Trail is the location of a large mine and smelter in British Columbia. The process was originally used in the 1930s for abating air pollution from the smelter, but when the demand for sulfuric acid for fertilizer production increased in 1943 it became obsolete. See also Boliden (1), RESOX. 

Federspiel C, Layne JT, Auer C, et al Lung function among employees of a copper mine smelter Lack of effect of chronic sulfur dioxide exposure. J Occup Med 22 438 144, 1980... 

Smelter fumes which damaged crops, fodder, and stock were a serious problem. While Professor Carl Friedrich Plattner was studying means of removing sulfur dioxide, Reich devised a simple apparatus for determining the sulfur dioxide content of vapors and gases. Even the erection at Hilbersdorf of the tallest smokestack in Europe failed... 

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