Economics of Acid Gas Injection with Comparison to Sulfur Recovery in China

Abstract

In this paper, a comparative economic analysis is conducted on the two kinds of acid gas treatment process, i.e. Claus sulfur recovery (CSR) and acid gas injection (AGI). The largest acid gas field in China, Puguang gas field, is used as a study case for the proposed methodology. The detailed cost of the sulfur recovery process by traditional Claus unit is compared with the one of acid gas re-injection process. On the basis of the designed process, investment scale of the two different options for acid gas process is thoroughly investigated from the following three aspects, i.e. fixed assets investment, annual operating costs including labor costs, maintenance costs, accessories consumption, etc., and energy costs including water-consuming, fuel gas, and electricity. The preliminary result shows that the investment of acid gas injection process is generally about 60% of the Claus desulfurization process, and it may show a certain fluctuation with consideration of labor costs, energy prices, project scale and other factors in Puguang gas field in China.