Design and start-up of the World's largest sulphur melter

摘要

The development of high capacity sulfur melters is described together with the design fundamentals for the recent Mosaic sulfur melter system. The case is made for employing external heat exchangers for melters having melting requirements above 40 mtph. Substantially higher heat transfer rates are achieved in shell and tube heat exchangers as compared to typical steam coils-in-tanks designs. Eliminating the internal steam coils allows for a more compact sulfur melter. The current high capacity melter design provide for non-meltable solids to be continuously transferred to a pump tank receiving sulfur from the melter overflow. "Hot" cleanout of solids in the pump tank requires minimal downtime. Melter control and effects of sulfur moisture and acidity are described for a melter having 200 mtph capacity. Comissioning and startup of the Mosaic sulfur melter are described together with updates of the sulfur melting operation.