Clariant to supply sorbent for warm gas desulfurization technology to RTI

MUNICH — Clariant announced the signing of a global licensing agreement with RTI International granting Clariant exclusive rights of supply for their solid sorbent material, which is vital for RTI’s warm gas desulfurization process (WDP) technology.

Clariant Wdp Technology Rti
Photo courtesy of Clariant.

WDP is an advanced market-ready technology for producing cleaner energy and chemicals from coal and other high-sulfur feedstocks. It enables sulfur-containing gas streams, such as synthesis gas (or syngas) from coal or petcoke gasification, to be cleaned at elevated temperatures (250°C–650°C), thus reducing or eliminating the need for substantial gas cooling and expensive heat recovery. This increases overall process efficiency, reduces greenhouse gas emissions, and reduces the capital and operating costs of the entire gas cleanup block by up to 50% compared to conventional technologies.

A solid fluidizable sorbent to be supplied by Clariant is key to the WDP technology due to its unique characteristics. Able to function across a wide range of operating temperatures and pressures, the quick-reacting sorbent has a high capacity for adsorbing sulfur, removing H2S and COS to very low levels and allowing customers to treat large gas streams volumes. The sorbent is regenerable with a low attrition rate and long cycle lengths without major replacement requirements, thus reducing the need for shut-downs.

WDP technology can achieve up to 99.9% removal of total sulfur from syngas at temperatures as high as 650°C and over a wide range of sulfur concentrations. The process was demonstrated, with funding support from the US Department of Energy, on a 54,000 Nm3/h synthesis gas stream in a coal/petcoke gasification plant at Tampa Electric’s Polk Power Station in Florida, where it operated successfully for more than 3,500 hr.

The integration of this technology with a downstream activated-amine carbon capture process enabled further reduction of total sulfur in the syngas to sub-ppmv concentrations (as low as 100 parts per billion), suitable for stringent synthesis gas applications such as chemicals, fertilizers, and fuels.

Clariant is a supplier of catalysts and sorbents used in the synthesis gas, or syngas, process industry, with a long history of innovation and expertise in the field. Clariant has already produced more than 100 t of sorbent in commercial-scale equipment for use in RTI’s scale-up and near-commercial demonstration testing of the WDP technology.

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