GB708041A - Method and apparatus for the combustion of hydrogen sulphide and the production of sulphur - Google Patents

Abstract

<PICT:0708041/III/1> <PICT:0708041/III/2> Sulphur is prepared by the combustion of hydrogen sulphide which may contain hydrocarbons, e.g. 0.5-2 per cent. methane, by intimately mixing, prior to combustion, the hydrogen sulphide with oxygen or free oxygen-containing gas and discharging the resulting mixture at a high velocity, sufficient to prevent flash back, into a burner as described and claimed in the parent Specification (see Group XI). Air injected through pipe 3 and hydrogen sulphide entering through 2 pass into mixing device 1 and the resultant mixture is supplied to annular gas chamber, 6, Fig. 2, tangential to the walls thereof and passes thence with increasing rotational velocity through annular slit 7 in the terminal wall of refractory cup-shaped combustion chamber 8 so that vortices of burning gas are formed at the inner and outer sides of the flame. The proportion of air to hydrogen sulphide, say 2.4 : 1, may be such as to ensure maximum production of sulphur, e.g. 85 per cent. at a combustion temperature above 1000 DEG C. Gases from the combustion chamber may be cooled by immediately contacting them with a steam boiler to condense sulphur. Any hydrogen sulphide in the gases may be converted to sulphur by contact with a catalyst or burned to sulphur dioxide and used for sulphuric acid production. A continuous burning pilot flame is provided in opening 9, along the axis of chamber 8, supplied with fuel gas at 10 and air, preferably 30 per cent. excess, at 12, 11. The pilot burner may have a nozzle and materials resistant to corrosion by the combustion products may be used at and near the openings.