Cost-cutting for offshore sulfur recovery processes studied

An increasing portion of future US gas supply is likely to come from offshore, primarily Gulf of Mexico. Because this gas can be sour, the industry has sought lower cost H{sub 2}S-removal/recovery processes for treating it. Usually the gas contains < 5 tons/day (tpd) of sulfur. A study to compare several emerging sulfur-removal/recovery processes against a baseline Amine/LO-CAT II process has indicated that some emerging processes, though not yet commercialized, show considerable potential for reducing costs. Specifically, the major findings were that Double Loop and CrystaSulf, developed by Radian International LLC, Austin, were the least expensive capital-cost processes by a significant margin and that Marathon Oil Co.`s Hysulf`s cost has the potential to compete with Double Loop and CrystaSulf.