Petro Chem Sulfur

[JMA375HH]

Got a question I live in an area of Alaska that has a petrol plant. They produce Gas, Diesel any way there by- product is of course Sulfur I'm assuming this is pretty dam pure and good for pyro work. The last time I was working at the plant someone told me that the plant had little to no market for the sulfur so they just let it sit in these huge bunkers. If this would be good sulfur to use, maybe I should check to see if they would let me have some. So let me know what you think about this type of sulfur and if in fact its worth checking into.

Thanks

[shagaKahn]

Acquaintance on another list is similarly employed and he claims this is really pure sulfur. (Low acid).

 

(Hopefully someone else on the list will pipe up and confirm this as I'd hate for you to get your head blown off just on my say-so).

[Seymour]

I am currently using petrochemical sulfur. It works very well.

[Arthur]

I had a conducted tour of a western firework factory or great repute a couple of years ago. All their sulphur in the stores (pallets of it!) said "Refinery Sulphur" on the bags. So it must work for them, and the price must be right! The usual problem with refineries is location -they tend to be a bit remote so transport is an added cost. The sulphur is fine for our purposes.

[shagaKahn]

Been doing some homework and came across this article. (This should make us all drool--and perhaps inspire the originator of this thread to start his own cottage industry to supply us all with inexpensive pure sulfur? After all--as mentioned--the only expense would be the transportation):

 

 

KAZAKHSTAN

 

Having already spent $20 bn since 1993, TCO is investing $2 bn by 2005. Related projects include expansion of the Tengiz crude oil

fractionation plant from 12m t/y to 19m t/y by 2005. It is also increasing storage space for sulphur. TCO has to stock thousands of

tons of sulphur every day, after it is separated from its hydrogen sulphide-rich oil. Over more than a decade of production, TCO has

accumulated several million tons of sulphur at Tengiz.

 

As a result of oil production and sour gas separation in the Tengiz region, there are now huge bright yellow mountains of sulphur on

the Kazakh Caspian coast. The mountains will multiply with the big increase in TCO production (see OMT) and the planned oil

production streams from the vast offshore areas including the super-giant Kashagan oilfield (see Gas Market Trends 7).

 

With the TCO production system yielding 4,500-5,000 tons/day of sulphur, the company lost an appeal against a $73m environmental

fine earlier this year in a Kazakh Supreme Court ruling. TCO was charged with causing great environmental damage for having stored

5m tons of sulphur. The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection classed the sulphur as industrial waste which, it

said, was creating a public health hazard. TCO argued that the sulphur was a raw material or product, but the court did not agree

and ordered the company to pay the fine.

The sulphur is being stored in granular and lump forms. TCO is having a plant built to turn the sulphur into coated pellets for

export. Chevron had previously flown Kazakh government officials to Vancouver, British Columbia, to demonstrate that the problem

could be lived with.