A new acid gas destruction kinetic model for reaction furnace of an industrial sulfur recovery unit: A CFD study

A new reduced kinetic model is developed for the simulation of acid gas destruction in the industrial reaction furnace of sulfur recovery units. The proposed CFD model includes the reactions of the new kinetic mechanism, steady laminar flamelet model, and fine details of industrial furnace geometry related to the burner, choke ring, checkerwall, and exhaust pipe holder. The mean relative error in predicting H2S conversion using CFD, coupled with our new kinetic model, is about 9.48% when compared with the industrial data. The influences of two types of burners and the checkerwalls on the thermohydrodynamics behaviors of the reaction furnace are investigated. The reactor equipped with Vectorwall and co directional diffuser shows the lowest radiative heat flux (RHF) and favorable outlet temperature to protect the tube sheets, while the one with conventional checkerwall and co-directional diffuser shows the highest H2S conversion efficiency in the furnace. (C) 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.