Acid plant operators face a number of different obstacles when trying maximize profitability of the plant;achieving maximum cycle length,optimizing turnarounds and ensuring the most effective operation,catalyst replacement and maintenance efforts are a few important examples.As if this was not enough,air pollution is,or is becoming,a significant issue in big cities and highly industrialized regions across the globe.As a consequence,emissions from all sources attract more and more attention from the public and legislators.The increased attention on these issues has affected the sulfuric acid industry through a tightening of the maximum permissible limit for a number of pollutants,one of the more critical being SO2.The tightened limits can be met with more advanced catalyst,where the most advanced solutions,employing VK69 and LEAP5 catalyst,can achieve SO2-emission levels down to 20 ppm.With increasing ambitions for lower emission,there is however less room for suboptimal operation of the plant itself such as leaking heat exchangers,uneven temperature or flow distribution across the catalyst beds or poor catalyst performance.If problems like these are not rectified continuously,reaching ambitious emission limits will not be possible,regardless of how advanced equipment or catalyst is installed.Efficient use of catalyst technical service and proactive maintenance will often be the most cost-effective way to maintain low emission and efficient operation,at steady state and transient conditions.Although,reducing rates,using excessive catalyst loadings or installing tail gas treatment may very well achieve the same thing,it will be far more economical to make sure that the acid plant runs at the best of its abilities with a more moderate catalyst loading.Catalyst technical service and a proactive mindset will not only help the SO2 emission in check,it will also be instrumental in addressing a number of the obstacles acid plant operators face.Proper use of technical service will thus help ensuring both a cost-effective plant and maintaining the SO2-emission below the limit.In this paper it will be described how catalyst technical service can help acid plant operators can get the most out of their plant and catalyst.The points will be substantiated with industrial data to show how other acid plant operators have already benefitted from technical service to overcome their unique challenges and optimize operation of their plants.
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