Sulphuric World

General Comment On Data Input Cells

If you want to format data displayed in any data input cell, to your taste, then double-click that cell and a dialog box will appear. Entering your choice values in the dialog box will change the display accordingly. This data format will also be saved along with data. So next time you open the file, you'll see the data as you wanted it to appear.

Some of the data cells also have special local menus, which can be obtained by clicking the right mouse button. These local menus are specific to each data input cell and offer some convenience.

Material Balance Module

In the material balance module, for any absorption tower (acid or oleum towers) the acid/oleum flow rates can be left as zero. In such case if you specify the liquid inlet as well as outlet temperatures then flow rate will be calculated to give resultant liquid temperatures. If you leave the liquid outlet temperature value unspecified i.e. zero, then standard temperature rise across tower is used as guideline for automatically calculating the liquid flow rates.

Heat Exchanger Module

This module also takes care of heat balance. Only thing is that you have to fill in details of shell side stream and tube side stream for inlet as well as outlet. You can leave the value to be calculated as zero. In case of simulation you can leave the value of both outlet temperatures as zero. Depending upon number of degrees of freedom, the program does the heat balance.

Stream Editor Module

To add 2 streams :

Select the first stream and mark the stream as "Mark Stream-1". Stream is selected by placing the mouse cursor in any cell in a row and pressing left mouse button. The selected cell appears highlighted. The row containing selected cell is the selected stream. Selected stream can be marked as 1 or 2 by pressing "1" "2" buttons on the tool bar or from the pop-up menu. The pop-up menu appears on right clicking the mouse button.
Select the second stream similarly and mark as "Mark Stream-2".
After marking the streams as 1 & 2, select a stream with empty data (basically a stream to hold results of addition).
Now pressing tool bar button "+" will add these 2 marked streams and resulting stream will be displayed. This stream addition simulates physical mixing of 2 streams. You can add various type of streams viz. acid, oleum, water, steam with acid, water, oleum, steam in any combination; air, gas, water, steam with air, gas, water, steam in any combination.

There is another button with Sigma summation face on it. This is used for adding all the stream beginning at first stream upto second stream. This is basically helpful, when you have more than 3-4 stream coming to a equipment and want to know resulting stream. You can place all the streams in continuous rows and sum them all up. The procedure is same as earlier. Only in this case you press button with Sigma sign.

In case of subtraction, it is only flow rate subtraction, and not physical tearing of streams. I have not yet been in position to simulate physical tearing of streams, basically due to lack of time & need. To do so.

Heat Balance

In the stream editor itself you can do the heat balance. For doing the heat balance you, place the 4 streams in four subsequent rows viz.

Hot/cold inlet stream
Hot/cold outlet stream
Cold/hot inlet stream
Cold/hot outlet stream

Then select the beginning row containing 4 streams. You can do heat balance of these 4 streams by pressing "H" button on tool bar or from pop-up menu. For doing the heat balance, leave the parameter to be calculated as zero e.g. if you want to calculate inlet or outlet temperature of any stream, then leave the temperature of that stream as zero (0 Deg C or 32 Deg F if using English units). If you want to calculate flow rate then leave the flow rate of inlet stream (hot or cold) as zero. You can set the heat loss percent to be used from pop-up menu. Default value is set at 3%.

Exchanger Module or Absorber Module

Once material balance has been done, then generally data for heat exchangers or absorption columns will be arranged in four consecutive rows. In such a case if you select the top row of such 4 consecutive rows, and start the Exchanger or Absorber Module then all the 4 stream data will be automatically copied to that module editor. This will avoid the inconvenience of copy/paste operations for data entry into Exchanger or Absorber modules.

Editor Modules “Results” page

Right click on the “results” tab and you'll see the option to save the results to a file or print it directly. You can type in your own comments also on this page and then save it to a file. The saved file is in rtf format compatible to any word processing software.

Starting Program

Click on the Windows* ‘Start' button and go to Sulphuric on the ‘Programs' menu. Click on Sulphuric32 . Go to the menu bar and click on ‘Options' and select ‘Use English Units' from the menu if you want to use English units. If you selected English units the last time you used the program, it will start up with English units selected. To change to metric units, deselect ‘Use English Units'. You cannot change back to English units once you have deselected English units without restarting the program. Click on ‘Old Style Stream Editor' if you are not concerned with listing streams containing zeros. Non zero streams will be visible after ‘Material Balance' has been executed. If ‘Old Style Editor' is not selected, only streams with non zeros will be listed.' Old Style Editor' can be selected or deselected at anytime during the course of the program.

New Plant Module (Sulfur Burning)

Starting a new file:

Click on the ‘New Plant' module to start a new project file. Enter all the relative data on the new plant under the following categories:

Plant Details

Plant title
Production STPD or MTPD
Acid concentration %
Atmospheric Air Temp. Deg F or C
Air Relative Humidity %
Blower Discharge “WC or mm WC
Steam Pressure psig or Kg/cm²

The ‘New Plant' module always opens up with default data entries so check your new entries carefully that no unwanted default entries have been included in your new data.

Starting with a saved file:

Click on ‘File' on the menu bar and then ‘Open'. Open your previously saved file named ‘Plant Details' or ‘Results'. All of the data you saved from your previous material balance calculation will be displayed, i.e. Plant Details, Converter, Towers, Products, etc.

To recover your streams list, go to the New Plant bar and click on the ‘Streams' module, then go to the menu bar and Click on ‘File' and ‘Open'. Open your previously saved file named ‘Streams'. All of the streams data you saved from your previous material balance calculation will be displayed. Refer to the sections in the instructions called Saving the Data you have inputted and Streams.

Burner

Select ‘Burner Calculation Option': ‘Burner Temperature' or ‘Burner SO2', one or the other. Make ‘Quench…' and ‘Burner Air is Preheated' selections. All other entries will be filled in when ‘Material balance' is executed.

Make selections under the remaining categories:

Plant Feed Stock - select ‘Sulfur Burning'.
Plant Type
Blower Location
Quench Medium
Acid Circuit Pump Tank and Coolers
Product Acid Drawn From (at this time only the DT selection is operable).

Products

Check the product list.
Check if you want a product cooler and enter the temperature of the product acid. The program will calculate the quantity of product acid.
Enter product capacities for oleum, liquid SO₃, gaseous SO₂, and CSA if applicable.

Converter

Select Converter bed arrangement. If you want to account for leakage between passes, select that. Enter the bed inlet temperatures. Select to calculate either bed outlet temperature or percent conversion. If quench air is used for gas cooling, select that.

Towers

Acid flows can be entered or the program allowed to calculate them based on Shukla's criteria. Enter the acid concentration and temperature of the acid entering the tower. The acid and air/gas outlet temperatures will be calculated - no need to enter this data. The DT air inlet temperature will be calculated based on the atmospheric air temperature and the blower pressure if the blower is before the DT. Otherwise the inlet temperature will be the atmospheric air temperature. Enter the gas outlet temperatures or allow the program to calculate them based on Shukla's criteria.

Heat Recovery Section

Select the equipment for gas cooling. If additional equipment is used for cooling after a converter pass then select that. Examples: An economizer after an IPAT return gas heater or an economizer after a superheater (economizer/superheater). Enter ‘Steam Temperature' or allow the program to calculate it based on Shukla's criteria.

Oleum Section

Enter the product oleum TPD and concentration. Oleum flow can be entered or the program allowed to calculate it based on Shukla's criteria. Enter the oleum concentration and temperature of the oleum entering the tower. The oleum and gas outlet temperatures will be calculated - no need to enter this data. Enter the gas inlet and outlet temperatures or allow the program to calculate them based on Shukla's criteria. The program will calculate the gas outlet SO3 percent.

Check if oleum tower is full flow. If the oleum tower has a bypass it is not full flow.

Saving the Data you have inputted

As soon as you have completed inputting all of the above data, double check your entries and then go to the menu bar and click on ‘File' and save this to a file and name it “Plant Details”. This is even before you calculate the material balance! Should the material balance alter any data you want to maintain, you will be able to reenter your original data. Otherwise you will not have any record of what you entered originally.

Material Balance

Go to the menu bar and select Calculations, then select ‘Material Balance' from the menu. The Windows* hour glass symbol will appear for a few seconds and then the ‘Results' screen will appear with a summary of your design. You may have to repeat this procedure more than once - changing the data you inputted - before you get the desired results. If the results are OK then go to ‘File' on the menu bar and save this to a file and name it “Results”. If the results agree with the data you inputted, you can discard either the “Plant Details” or the “Results” file because they will be the same. Also, you can right click on the ‘Results' screen and print a copy of the results.

Streams Module

Next, click on the ‘Streams' module on the ‘New Plant' bar and check the results listed. If you did not check the ‘Old Style Stream Editor' there will be no non zero streams except for the those at the end of the list. These zero streams at the end of the listing will not appear when you list the streams under '‘Reports' (see next paragraph). To print the streams list, go to ‘Reports' on the menu bar and select ‘Streams' from the menu. To print the stream properties go again to ‘Reports' and select ‘Properties' from the menu. The properties table is useful for converting such data as pounds per hour of acid, oleum, water or sulfur to gallons per minute.

As soon as you are satisfied with the data listed in the ‘Streams' module, go to the menu bar and click on ‘File' and save this to a file and name it “Streams”. It is always a good idea to save the results of your latest calculations before attempting additional calculations or revising previous calculations. New stream file names can always be given an appendix in order to distinguish them from previous results. If you forgot to deselect ‘Old Style Stream Editor' and ended up with a lot of zeros in your stream list, this can be corrected by saving the file and then reopening it with ‘Old Style Stream Editor' deselected.

Absorber Module

After performing a material balance, the ‘Absorber' module will appear on the New Plant bar.

Enter the following data:

Tower Details

Title - Enter a title such as Absorbing Tower , FAT or IPAT
Tower Dia. ft or mm - Enter your figure or allow the program to calculate it based on Shukla's criteria.
Packing Height ft or mm - Enter your figure or allow the program to calculate it based on Shukla's criteria.
Liquid Surface Tension - Use default value.
Packing Surface Tension - Use default value.
Packed Height Required - Enter your figure or allow the program to calculate it based on Shukla's criteria.
Packing Material - Ceramic
Packing - Select packing size from the pull-down menu.

Packing Details

Use default values.

Liquid

Copy and paste the inlet and outlet streams from the Streams table.

Gas

Copy and paste the inlet and outlet streams from the Streams table

See Saving the Data you have inputted . Save the data you entered to a file and name it the same as the title you gave the tower.

Go to Calculations on the menu bar and select a calculation from the choice of Packed Height, Diameter, or Pressure Drop. If you have entered all the above information according to your own design and wish to simulate the tower performance, choose ‘Simulate'. The ‘Results' screen will appear with the predicted tower performance. If you are satisfied with this design, go to the menu bar, click on ‘File' and save the results to a file and name it same as the title you gave the tower.

Converter Module

After performing a material balance, the ‘Converter' module will appear on the New Plant bar. Before opening the ‘Converter' module, calculate the converter diameter using the ‘Calculations' menu on the menu bar. A window will appear with the Converter diameter. Note this diameter. Click ‘OK', then click on the ‘Converter' module and enter the diameter of the Converter. Change the catalyst details if desired. There are two modes of Converter calculations. In one mode, you can specify the conversion values of each pass and then calculate catalyst loading for each pass. In the other mode, you can enter the catalyst volumes of each bed and then simulate the conversion in each pass. I recommend the later mode since the first mode has a tendency to hang-up the program.

The "Converter" module is very sensitive to the input data. If the gas velocity in the converter is not proper, which may happen if improper diameter is selected, then the reaction equations will not converge properly. This results in infinite looping in the software and the program hanging up. Due to the nature of reaction equations, it is very difficult to trap all the conditions causing this. Finally, this module is based upon general catalyst kinetics available in published literature and the specific catalyst supplied by various manufactures may not fit the kinetics. This module is basically more for guidance purpose than predicting exact behavior of various catalysts.

Converter Details

Converter Dia. ft or mm - Enter a figure or use the dimension shown based on Shukla's criteria or allow the program to calculate the diameter. Bed I, II, III, etc. - The bed inlet and outlet temperatures and percent conversion will have been calculated if the material balance has been performed. If the ‘Converter' module is used to calculate percent conversion, revising catalyst loadings may alter the percent conversion.

Leakage - If “Use leakage between catalyst beds” was selected under the ‘Converter' section of ‘Plant Details' and percentages entered for each pass, they will be shown here.

Catalyst Details

Catalyst Loading - Enter volume of catalyst for each bed or have the program calculate it. If the Converter module is used to calculate catalyst loadings, revising catalyst loadings may alter the percent conversion.
Catalyst Details - Use default values unless you know the catalyst density. You may want to enter catalyst diameters if you know them. The catalyst height will be calculated based on the catalyst volumes given.
See Saving the Data you have inputted . Save the data you entered to a file and name it ‘Converter'.

If you have not already done so or wish to repeat the calculation, go to Calculations on the menu bar and select a calculation from the choice of Catalyst Loading or Conversion.

The ‘Results' screen will appear with the predicted converter performance. If you are satisfied with this design, go to the menu bar, click on ‘File' and save the results to a file and name it the same as the title you gave the converter.

Exchanger Module

Exchanger Details

Enter a title
Enter the type
Enter phase change, if any. Otherwise leave blank
Enter flow
Enter exchanger size details. The following are the minimum entries:
Tube OD
Tube ID
Tube length
Number of tube passes
Pitch
Baffles
Baffle cut (% open)
Enter other exchanger details. Most of the default numbers are good. You may want to specify shell side bypass %, heat loss and insulation thickness. If you enter a bypass percentage, the shell side exit temperature will be that downstream of where the bypassed gas reenters the gas stream.

Tube Fluid

Copy and paste the inlet and outlet streams from the Streams table.

Shell Fluid

Copy and paste the inlet and outlet streams from the Streams table.

See Saving the Data you have inputted . Save the data you entered to a file and name it the same as the title you gave the exchanger.

Go to Calculations on the menu bar and select a calculation from the choice of Heat Balance, Calculate Area, Simulate, or Profile. If you have entered all of the above information according to your own design and wish to simulate the exchanger performance, choose ‘Simulate'. The ‘Results' screen will appear with the predicted exchanger performance. If you left the shell diameter and number of tubes to be calculated by the program, select ‘Calculate Area' from the ‘Calculations' menu. The ‘Results' screen will appear with the predicted exchanger performance. Once you are satisfied with the exchanger design, go to the menu bar, click on ‘File' and save the results to a file and name it the same as the title you gave the exchanger.

Steam

Click on the ‘Steam' module of the ‘New Plant' bar. The ‘Steam Generation' window will appear. Enter the following data:

Steam pressure psig or Kg/cm²
Inlet Water Temp. Deg F or C. This is normally the water temperature leaving the feed water heater (220 F or 104 C). Seldom is there an acid plant boiler without a feed water heater. If there is no Economizer it will be the temperature entering the boiler.
Blow Down %
Wetness Fraction %
Superheat Deg F or C (the program will calculate this given the correct information under Heat Loads below).

Heat loads

Economizer/s (enter the sum total of enthalpy differences between streams entering and leaving the economizer/s)
Waste Heat Boiler (enter the sum total of enthalpy differences between streams entering and leaving the boiler/s)
Superheater (enter the sum total of enthalpy differences between streams entering and leaving the economizer/s)

See Saving the Data you have inputted . Save the data you entered to a file and name it ‘Steam' .

Once you are satisfied with the results of the steam calculation, go to the menu bar, click on ‘File' and save the results to a file and name it “Steam generation”.

New Plant Module (Metallurgical)

Starting a new file:
Click on the ‘Existing Plant' module to start a new project file. The default is a metallurgical plant. Enter all the relative data on the new plant under the following categories:

Plant Details

Plant title
Production STPD or MTPD. This will be calculated when you do the material balance based on the SO2 concentration entered under ‘Gas Input' (see below).
Acid concentration %
Plant Feedstock. Select ‘Metallurgical Gas'.
Plant Type
Blower Location
Product Acid Drawn From
Blower Discharge “ WC or mm WC
Steam Pressure psig or Kg/cm²
Quench Medium
Acid Circuit Pump Tank & Cooling
Gas Input