LAUSR

ABSTRACT The frequent changes in the composition of acid gas feed to the Claus process cause flame instability and lead to the incomplete destruction of aromatic contaminants in feed that are benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylenes (BTEX). These aromatics cause frequent catalyst deactivation. The current literature lacks a reliable global kinetic model that can ease the computational burden of optimizing the process parameters to enhance flame stability and support BTEX destruction. In this paper, a kinetic model for BTEX oxidation is developed for the first time using a detailed reaction mechanism and is validated using plant data. The model is used to evaluate the effects of inlet air preheating, methane co-firing, and oxygen enrichment on BTEX destruction and furnace temperature. The simulation results ascertain that a favorable increase in the furnace temperature can be achieved with appropriate feed parameters such as feed temperature and O2 concentration to decrease BTEX emission from the furnace below 6 ppm. The model is used to conduct an optimization study that successfully demonstrates its capability to predict optimized inlet parameters for effective BTEX destruction, a high sulfur recovery efficiency, a low emission of CO and SO2, and a reduced fuel gas consumption in the Claus process plants.