Modern day smelting processes for ores containing sulphides, make use of air enriched with oxygen, the processes generate sulphur dioxide and sulphur trioxide off gases as by-products.
When released into the atmosphere, the gases react with moisture or rain resulting in sulphurous acids or acid rain. As such, stringent environmental regulations have been imposed for companies that generate SO2 emissions in their operations. Various innovative approaches have been widely explored, with some involving the conversion of sulphur dioxide to sulphur trioxide for production of sulphuric acid, a process which takes place in reactors commonly called convertors. To speed up this oxidizing reaction, convertors contain calculated quantities of a vanadium pentoxide based catalyst.
By definition a catalyst is “a substance that increases the rate of a chemical reaction without itself undergoing any permanent chemical change.” However, in continuous industrial processes, the phenomenon of catalyst surface poisoning and surface area impairment are prominent, hence the need for catalyst surface re-activation, top-up and replacement. This calls for regular, effective Catalyst handling services for players in the mining, metal smelting and mineral processing industries.
The services include the following:
Catalyst un-loading
Catalyst screening
Catalyst reloading
It is worth noting that catalyst handling requires a lot of expertise as tasks are performed using highly sophisticated machinery, under strict health, safety, environmental, legislation in the most challenging confined and hazardous working environments. The need for a well-equipped and experienced partner is inescapable for all manufacturers.