A process plant and a process for production of sulfur from a feedstock gas including from 15% to 100 vol % H.sub.2S and a stream of sulfuric acid, the process including a) providing a Claus reaction furnace feed stream with a substoichiometric amount of oxygen, b) directing to a Claus reaction furnace operating at elevated temperature, c) cooling to provide a cooled Claus converter feed gas, d) directing to contact a material catalytically active in the Claus reaction, e) withdrawing a Claus tail gas and elementary sulfur, f) directing a stream comprising said Claus tail gas to a Claus tail gas treatment, wherein sulfuric acid directed to said Claus reaction furnace is in the form of droplets with 90% of the mass of the droplets having a diameter below 500 μm, with the associated benefit of such a process efficiently converting all liquid H.sub.2SO.sub.4 to gaseous H.sub.2SO.sub.4 and further to SO.sub.2.

Recovering helium from a gaseous stream includes contacting an acid gas removal membrane with a gaseous stream to yield a permeate stream and a residual stream, removing a majority of the acid gas from the residual stream to yield a first acid gas stream and a helium depleted clean gas stream, removing a majority of the acid gas from the permeate stream to yield a second acid gas stream and a helium rich stream, and removing helium from the helium rich stream to yield a helium product stream and a helium depleted stream. A helium removal system for removing helium from a gaseous stream including hydrocarbon gas, acid gas, and helium includes a first processing zone including a first acid gas removal unit, a second processing zone including a second acid gas removal unit, a third processing zone, and a helium purification unit.

A system and method including a sulfur recovery system (SRU) having a Claus system, reacting hydrogen sulfide and oxygen in a furnace to give sulfur dioxide, performing a Claus reaction in the furnace to give elemental sulfur, performing the Claus reaction in a Claus reactor to give elemental sulfur at a temperature greater than a dew point of the elemental sulfur, performing the Claus reaction in a Claus cycling reactor to give elemental sulfur at a temperature less than a solidification temperature of the elemental sulfur, depositing the elemental sulfur as solid elemental sulfur on catalyst in the Claus cycling reactor, and regenerating (heating) the Claus cycling reactor thereby forming elemental sulfur vapor from the solid elemental sulfur.

A system and method including a sulfur recovery system (SRU) having a Claus system, reacting hydrogen sulfide and oxygen in a furnace to give sulfur dioxide, performing a Claus reaction in the furnace to give elemental sulfur, performing the Claus reaction in a Claus reactor to give elemental sulfur at a temperature greater than a dew point of the elemental sulfur, performing the Claus reaction in a Claus cycling reactor to give elemental sulfur at a temperature less than a solidification temperature of the elemental sulfur, depositing the elemental sulfur as solid elemental sulfur on catalyst in the Claus cycling reactor, and regenerating (heating) the Claus cycling reactor thereby forming elemental sulfur vapor from the solid elemental sulfur.

A process and a process plant for production of elemental sulfur from a feedstock gas including from 15 vol % to 100 vol % H2S and a stream of sulfuric acid, the process including a) providing a Claus reaction furnace feed stream with a substoichiometric amount of oxygen, b) directing s to a reaction furnace operating at elevated temperature, c) cooling, d) directing to contact a material catalytically active in the Claus reaction, e) withdrawing a Claus tail gas and elemental sulfur, f) directing to a means for sulfur oxidation, g) directing to contact a material catalytically active in SO2 oxidation to SO3, h) converting to concentrated sulfuric acid, i) recycling to the Claus reaction furnace, wherein an amount of combustibles, in the Claus tail gas, is oxidized in the presence of a material catalytically active in sulfur oxidation, at an inlet temperature below 400° C.

A process for production of elemental sulfur from a feedstock gas including from 15% to 100 vol % H2S and a stream of sulfuric acid, the process including: a) providing a Claus reaction furnace feed stream substoichiometric oxygen with respect to the Claus reaction, b) directing to a reaction furnace zone operating at elevated temperature such as above 900° C., c) directing to a sulfuric acid evaporation zone downstream said reaction furnace zone, d) cooling to provide a cooled Claus converter feed gas, e) directing to contact a material catalytically active in the Claus reaction, f) withdrawing a Claus tail gas and elemental sulfur, g) directing to a Claus tail gas treatment plant, with the associated benefit of a process involving injection of sulfuric acid in a sulfuric acid evaporation zone allowing high temperature combustion of said feedstock gas, including impurities, without cooling from evaporation and decomposition of sulfuric acid.

A process and a process plant for production of elemental sulfur from a feedstock gas including from 15 vol % to 100 vol % H2S and a stream of sulfuric acid, the process including a) providing a Claus reaction furnace feed stream with a substoichiometric amount of oxygen, b) directing s to a reaction furnace operating at elevated temperature, c) cooling, d) directing to contact a material catalytically active in the Claus reaction, e) withdrawing a Claus tail gas and elemental sulfur, f) directing to a means for sulfur oxidation, g) directing to contact a material catalytically active in SO2 oxidation to SO3, h) converting to concentrated sulfuric acid, i) recycling to the Claus reaction furnace, wherein an amount of combustibles, in the Claus tail gas, is oxidized in the presence of a material catalytically active in sulfur oxidation, at an inlet temperature below 400° C.

Methods and systems are provided for treating the tail gas stream of a sulfur recovery plant. The methods including generating a tail gas stream from a sulfur recovery plant, treating the tail gas stream with a hydrogen sulfide removal unit and a hydrogen selective membrane unit, generating a stream low in hydrogen sulfide and a stream rich in hydrogen. The hydrogen sulfide rich stream is recycled to the sulfur recovery unit. The hydrogen selective membrane unit includes a glassy polymer membrane selective for hydrogen over hydrogen sulfide and carbon dioxide.

A revamp process for modifying a sulfur abatement plant including a Claus process plant, the Claus process plant including a Claus reaction furnace and one or more Claus conversion stages, each Claus conversion stage including a conversion reactor and a means for elemental sulfur condensation, and a means of Claus tail gas oxidation configured for receiving a Claus tail gas from said Claus process plant and configured for providing an oxidized Claus tail gas, the process revamp including: a) providing a sulfuric acid producing tail gas treatment plant producing sulfuric acid, and b) providing a means for transferring an amount or all of the sulfuric acid produced in said sulfuric acid producing tail gas treatment plant to said Claus reaction furnace, wherein the moles of sulfur in the transferred sulfuric acid relative to the moles of elemental sulfur withdrawn from the Claus process plant is from 3% to 25%.

Methods and systems are provided for treating the tail gas stream of a sulfur recovery plant. The methods including generating a tail gas stream from a sulfur recovery plant, treating the tail gas stream with a hydrogen sulfide removal unit and a hydrogen selective membrane unit, generating a stream low in hydrogen sulfide and a stream rich in hydrogen. The hydrogen sulfide rich stream is recycled to the sulfur recovery unit. The hydrogen selective membrane unit includes a glassy polymer membrane selective for hydrogen over hydrogen sulfide and carbon dioxide.