Features Shown in HYSYS Sulsim Example Files

Launching with HYSYS V9, Sulsim technology (created by Sulphur Experts) is integrated within HYSYS.
Sulsim simulates the Claus Process from beginning to end by incorporating industry knowledge and data.
Sulsim incorporates empirical correlations fitted to plant data, letting you:

 Use the rigorous HYSYS simulation to accurately model the reaction furnace, reactors,
incinerator, and other related operations of the sulfur recovery plant
 Meet stringent environmental regulations and standards in flare gases, especially H2S & SO2
emissions limits
 Optimize acid gas cleaning and sulfur recovery design and operations
 Operate reliably, avoiding shutdown by satisfying air permits during operational changes
 Select the correct SRU equipment configuration to meet plant demands
 Minimize capital expenditures and operating expenses for SRUs to maximize plant profitability
 Simulate what-if scenarios in order to optimize conditions and energy while meeting sulfur
removal needs

Over 15 HYSYS Sulsim example files are provided to demonstrate how a user can build, configure,
simulate, and optimize a Claus plant using Aspen HYSYS. The following features are highlighted in the
HYSYS Sulsim example files:

 Sulsim (Sulfur Recovery) property package

 Specialized SRU Subflowsheet environment w/ Sulsim-specific palette (most cases open with
subflowsheet visible)
 Sulsim | Sulfur Recovery Unit ribbon group with Sulsim-specific “Performance Summary” and
“Combinations” for quickly adding entire thermal, catalytic, or tail gas stages to the flowsheet
 The following components are simulated in the flowsheet (editable in the properties
environment):

Hydrogen COS S3_Vapor S_Liquid Propane

Oxygen SO2 S4_Vapor Argon i-Butane
Nitrogen CS2 S5_Vapor Ammonia n-Butane
CO H2O S6_Vapor HCN i-Pentane
CO2 S1_Vapor S7_Vapor Methane n-Pentane
H2S S2_Vapor S8_Vapor Ethane n-Hexane
n-Heptane n-Nonane Benzene m-Xylene M-Mercaptan
n-Octane n-Decane Toluene E-Benzene E-Mercaptan
nPMercaptan nBMercaptan 1Pentanthiol Methanol

 Stream Saturator unit ops are used to quickly calculate saturation of acid gas and air streams
 Reaction Furnace using 1 of 9 available furnace models
 Each unit op has a “Performance” tab with results of interest for the sulfur recovery process
 Material Streams inside the SRU have a “Sulfur Recovery” page with results of interest
 Catalytic converters with alumina/titania catalyst selection and tuning factors
More information on specific example file cases is provided in each section below.

2 Stage Claus Process

This example case utilizes one thermal stage (furnace, waste heat exchanger, & condenser) and 2
catalytic stages (reheater, converter, and condenser) to remove elemental sulfur from an acid gas
containing 75% H2S, 24.2% CO2 and trace amounts of light hydrocarbons.

The reaction furnace is utilizing the “Straight Through Amine Acid Gas” model (new in V9) and is
operating at 1142C with an air supply rate set to achieve 0% air demand (2:1 ratio of H 2S:SO2 after last
condenser). After the catalytic stages, a cumulative conversion of 97.0% is achieved (96.8% recovered).

The following features are highlighted specifically in this case:

 An “Air Demand Analyzer” unit op, which is an “adjust” block operation specifically for the SRU
to determine the amount of furnace air required to meet targeted tail gas specs
 Streams have been highlighted using conditional formatting according to H2S concentration
(editable on the ribbon under Flowsheet/Modify | Conditional Formatting
 Custom data tables have been built and placed on the flowsheet to demonstrate how KPIs can
be easily visible without entering unit op and stream forms
 An “Adjust” unit operation has been added to demonstrate how a user could back-calculate
condenser vapor entrainment of liquid sulfur based on targeting a measured liquid sulfur flow
rate

2 Stage Claus Process with Incinerator

This example case utilizes one thermal stage (furnace, waste heat exchanger, & condenser), 2 catalytic
stages (reheater, converter, and condenser) and a tail gas incinerator/stack to remove elemental sulfur
from an acid gas containing 75% H2S, 24.2% CO2 and trace amounts of light hydrocarbons.

The reaction furnace is utilizing the “Rich Feed Acid Gas (Legacy)” model and is operating at 1124C with
an air supply rate set to achieve 0% air demand (2:1 ratio of H 2S:SO2 after last condenser). After the
catalytic stages, a cumulative conversion of 96.8% is achieved (96.6% recovered). The incinerator utilized
the built-in kinetic correlations (value of “4”) which help reduce emissions to the stack.

The following features are specifically highlighted in this case:

 An “Air Demand Analyzer” unit op, which is an “adjust” block operation specifically for the SRU
to determine the amount of furnace air required to meet targeted tail gas specs
 Incinerator & stack with built-in kinetic correlations
 Streams have been highlighted using conditional formatting according to H2S concentration
(editable on the ribbon under Flowsheet/Modify | Conditional Formatting
 An optimization example using the “Case Study” features which calculates changes in recovered
sulfur based on adjusting the dew-point margin on the 1 st catalytic converter
o Case study shows that it is not beneficial to reduce temperature in the catalytic
converter closer to the dew point margin. Recovery is maximized at a dew point margin
of about 92C (335C). Typically the first converter is operated at higher temperatures to
hydrolyze COS and CS2.
2 Stage Claus Process with Tail Gas Treating Unit
This example case utilizes one thermal stage (furnace, waste heat exchanger, & condenser), 2 catalytic
stages (reheater, converter, and condenser) and a tail gas treating stage (reducing gas generator,
hydrogenation bed, quench tower, amine absorber & regenerator, and incinerator/stack) to remove
elemental sulfur from an acid gas containing 75% H2S, 24.2% CO2 and trace amounts of light
hydrocarbons.

The reaction furnace is utilizing the “Rich Feed Acid Gas (Legacy)” model and is operating at 1112C with
an air supply rate set to achieve 0% air demand (2:1 ratio of H 2S:SO2 after last condenser). After the
catalytic stages, a cumulative conversion of 97.3% is achieved (97.1% recovered). Following the last
catalytic stage, a reducing gas generator (RGG) is used to selectively burn air with fuel gas and acid gas
to achieve a temperature of about 285C. An “Adjust” unit op is used to optimize fuel gas flow rate. The
RGG effluent is fed to the hydrogenation bed for extra conversion while inhibiting reactions involving all
hydrocarbons, mercaptans, NH3, and HCN. Effluent is then routed to a simple amine absorber &
regenerator after a quench stage. The Sulsim Simple Amine Absorber unit op is used for this purpose,
but customers requiring rigorous rate-based distillation for accurate simulation of the amine unit should
utilize the Acid Gas Cleaning capabilities within the HYSYS parent flowsheet and property packages. Tail
gas regenerator overhead acid gas is recycled to the beginning of the Claus plant. Finally, the tail gas is
sent to an incinerator/stack unit op. The incinerator utilized the built-in kinetic correlations (value of
“4”) which help reduce emissions to the stack.

The following features are specifically highlighted in this case:

 An “Air Demand Analyzer” unit op, which is an “adjust” block operation specifically for the SRU
to determine the amount of furnace air required to meet targeted tail gas specs
 An “Adjust” block is used to adjust the RGG fuel gas flow rate to meet a specific RGG effluent
target temperature (285C)
 Tail gas treating unit operations are featured, with the option to leverage HYSYS Acid Gas
Cleaning features in the parent flowsheet, if so desired
 Incinerator & stack with built-in kinetic correlations
 Streams have been highlighted using conditional formatting according to H2S concentration
(editable on the ribbon under Flowsheet/Modify | Conditional Formatting)

3 Stage Claus Process

This example case utilizes one thermal stage (furnace, waste heat exchanger, & condenser) and 3
catalytic stages (reheater, converter, and condenser) to remove elemental sulfur from an acid gas
containing 75% H2S, 24.2% CO2 and trace amounts of light hydrocarbons.

The reaction furnace is utilizing the “Straight Through Amine Acid Gas” model (new in V9) and is
operating at 1137C with an air supply rate set to achieve an H 2S:SO2 ratio of 10:1 after the last
condenser. After the catalytic stages, a cumulative conversion of 98.0% is achieved (97.8% recovered).

The following features are specifically highlighted in this case:

 An “Air Demand Analyzer” unit op, which is an “adjust” block operation specifically for the SRU
to determine the amount of furnace air required to meet targeted tail gas specs
  Streams have been highlighted using conditional formatting according to H2S concentration
(editable on the ribbon under Flowsheet/Modify | Conditional Formatting
 Custom data tables have been built and placed on the flowsheet to demonstrate how KPIs can
be easily visible without entering unit op and stream forms
 An “Adjust” unit operation has been added to demonstrate how a user could back-calculate
condenser vapor entrainment of liquid sulfur based on targeting a measured liquid sulfur flow
rate

3 Stage Claus Process with Incinerator

This example case utilizes one thermal stage (furnace, waste heat exchanger, & condenser), 3 catalytic
stages (reheater, converter, and condenser), and an incinerator/stack to remove elemental sulfur from
an acid gas containing 75% H2S, 24.2% CO2 and trace amounts of light hydrocarbons.

The reaction furnace is utilizing the “Straight Through Amine Acid Gas” model (new in V9) and is
operating at 1142C with an air supply rate set to achieve an H 2S:SO2 ratio of 2:1 after the last condenser.
After the catalytic stages, a cumulative conversion of 98.6% is achieved (98.4% recovered).

The following features are specifically highlighted in this case:

 Streams have been highlighted using conditional formatting according to H2S concentration
(editable on the ribbon under Flowsheet/Modify | Conditional Formatting
 A number of “Adjust” unit operations have been added to demonstrate the flexibility of HYSYS
in targeting various KPIs for the process
o An “Air Demand Analyzer” is used to target 0% Air Demand (2:1 ratio of H2S:SO2) at the
tail gas outlet by changing the amount of air fed to the reaction furnace
o An “Adjust” is used to target a catalytic converter temperature of +10C above the sulfur
dew point for the third catalytic stage by changing the duty of the heater upstream
o An “Adjust” is used to target a catalytic converter temperature of 270C for the first
catalytic stage by changing the amount of reactor effluent hot bypass from the waste
heat exchanger to mix with the first condenser off-gas
 A case study utility has been added to determine the effect of changing the temperature of the
first catalytic converter inlet (and therefore changing the amount of hot gas bypass). Results are
shown for 6 scenarios tested and show results such as the change in cumulative sulfur recovery
and amount of CS2, SO2, H2S, and COS in the tail gas

3 + 1 Superclaus Process
This example case utilizes one thermal stage (furnace, waste heat exchanger, & condenser), 3 catalytic
stages (reheater, converter, and condenser), a selective oxidation converter stage (DFH, converter, and
condenser), and an incinerator/stack to remove elemental sulfur from an acid gas containing 75% H2S,
24.2% CO2 and trace amounts of light hydrocarbons.

The reaction furnace is utilizing the “Straight Through Amine Acid Gas” model (new in V9) and is
operating at 1142C with an air supply rate set to achieve an H 2S:SO2 ratio of 10:1 after the last
condenser. After the catalytic stages, a cumulative conversion of 99.4% is achieved (99.2% recovered).

The following features are specifically highlighted in this case:

  Streams have been highlighted using conditional formatting according to H2S concentration
(editable on the ribbon under Flowsheet/Modify | Conditional Formatting
 A “2016” option is now available for the selective oxidation converter, which calculates the
conversion and selectivity of the operation automatically (new in V9)
 Kinetic models are used for the Incinerator unit op (new in V9)
 A number of “Adjust” unit operations have been added to demonstrate the flexibility of HYSYS
in targeting various KPIs for the process
o An “Air Demand Analyzer” is used to target a 10:1 ratio of H2S:SO2 after the 3 rd catalytic
stage by changing the amount of air fed to the reaction furnace
o An “Adjust” is used to target an outlet temperature for the Direct Fired Heater by
changing the flow rate of fuel gas to the unit op
 A case study utility has been added to determine the effect of changing the Air Demand
Analyzer H2S:SO2 ratio on the overall conversion and recovery for the process. Results are
shown for 6 scenarios tested and show that the higher the ratio, the higher the cumulative
conversion

2 Trains 2 Stage Claus Process with Common Incinerator

This example case utilizes two process trains, each consisting of one thermal stage (furnace, waste heat
exchanger, & condenser) and 2 catalytic stages (reheater, converter, and condenser) with tail gas
combining into one incinerator & stack to remove elemental sulfur acid gas. Train 1 treats an acid gas of
~ 70 mol% H2S at 1000 kgmol/hr, and the other train treats an acid gas of ~ 65 mol% H2S and 5% NH3 at
1500 kgmol/hr.

The reaction furnace in train 1 is utilizing the “Straight Through Amine Acid Gas” model (new in V9), and
is operating at 1105C with an air supply rate set to achieve 0% air demand (2:1 ratio of H 2S:SO2 after last
condenser). The reaction furnace in train 2 utilizes the “SWS Acid Gas” model (new in V9), and is
operating at 1093C with an air supply rate set to achieve 0% air demand. The catalytic stage in each train
both consist of 2 alumina-based catalytic converters, with the second converter optimized to operate
10C above the sulfur dew point. After the catalytic stages, a cumulative recovery of 97.0% is achieved,
and the gases are combined into an incinerator unit operation that utilizes a kinetic model (new in V9).

The following features are specifically highlighted in this case:

 2 sulfur recovery trains are simulated and combine into a single incinerator / stack
 An “Air Demand Analyzer” unit op, which is an “adjust” block operation specifically for the SRU
to determine the amount of furnace air required to meet targeted tail gas specs
 Streams have been highlighted using conditional formatting according to H2S concentration
(editable on the ribbon under Flowsheet/Modify | Conditional Formatting
 Custom data tables have been built and placed on the flowsheet to demonstrate how KPIs can
be easily visible without entering unit op and stream forms
 An “Adjust” unit operation has been added to demonstrate how a user could adjust reheater
duty to achieve a 10C sulfur dew point margin in the catalytic converters
Acid Gas Cleaning & Refining Integration
Several example files are also provided to show integration with sour water stripper feeds, HYSYS Acid
Gas Cleaning, and HYSYS Petroleum Refining unit ops (such as a hydrocracker model).