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Sulphur
With greater levels of sulphur being extracted from oil and gas to make cleaner transport fuels and reduce the sulphur dioxide in the atmosphere, there’s more and more of this left-over product to be dealt with. Adding it to fertilizers to promote plant growth has long been the traditional use, but now Shell is developing additional ways to put this by-product to good use.
Pastilles of solid sulphur
Putting sulphur to use
Sea-walls, made from a highly resilient sulphur concrete may, in the future, be one such use. Sulphur concrete developed by Shell, is more durable than traditional concrete and can withstand acidic and salty conditions: so is excellent for sea defences and waterworks. It is also more affordable. Unlike normal concrete, this new product has a smooth, plastic-like surface that is easy to paint, making it ideal for use in construction and even for domestic applications such as garden tiles. It is currently on commercial trial in the Netherlands with a view to being marketed more widely.
Another use we’ve developed are sulphur pellets, which can be mixed with bitumen asphalt to make road surfaces more durable – yet cheaper to build. This Shell-patented SEAM asphalt modifier has been used to pave roads in the USA, Canada, Saudi Arabia, Kazakhstan and China.
But before sulphur can be used in these and other industrial processes sulphur components have to be captured and converted into elemental sulphur in a number of processes steps depending on the source you start with.
Starting with crude oil, with so many components it takes hydrotreating and hydrocracking processes to break down the oil and convert the sulphur content into hydrogen sulfide (H2S). The H2S is then captured using Shell’s Sulfinol process that utilizes an aqueous amine – a solution of an ammonia based compound – that absorbs H2S.
With natural gas, the sulphur is already in the H2S form and can go directly to the Sulfinol process. During the Sulfinol process an H2S rich liquid is produced which is then converted into elemental sulphur by running it through a Claus sulphur recovery unit, turning the H2S in to a solid, bright yellow sulphur material that can be stored or sent off for industrial applications.
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All gas comes out of the ground contaminated to an extent, and around one-third of the world's gas fields are highly contaminated. The sulphur content makes sour gas highly poisonous.
