The Poultry Food Industry Continues to Drive Demand for Hydrogen Sulfide (H2S)

MT. PROSPECT, Ill.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Unitel Technologies, Inc.announced that the company has provided the technology and engineering/designfor two commercial H2S plants – a unitlocated in Europe making 48 MPTD of H2S and another onein Southeast Asia that includes two trains, each producing 60 MPTD of H2S. Both facilitiesare fully operational and meet the capacity and quality specifications requiredby the customers.

“The project was led by Dr. Brian Davis who proposed theconcept of ‘make it where you need it.’ To his credit, the XBI team was able tosuccessfully move from pencil and paper to commercialization without the needfor a pilot plant.”

“Unitel’s H2S productiontechnology was developed in the late 80’s in collaboration with Bechtel when I was Chairmanof XBI in Houston,” says Serge Randhava, CEO of Unitel. “Our process was firstdemonstrated in a commercial unit that was located near Rotterdam in TheNetherlands,” he adds. “The project was led by Dr. Brian Davis who proposed theconcept of ‘make it where you need it.’ To his credit, the XBI team was able tosuccessfully move from pencil and paper to commercialization without the needfor a pilot plant.”

Currently, the threemost significant but disparate applications of H2S are:

·       Methyl mercaptan (CH3SH) -- one of themost important intermediates made from H2S. In turn, it isused to produce methionine, the only sulfur containing amino acid nowextensively used as a food supplement in the poultry industry. Methionine iscurrently a $5 billion per year market that is projected to enjoy an annualgrowth rate of 5%.

·       Ethyl mercaptan and t-butyl mercaptan, widely used asgas odorizers in the natural gas industry. The shale gas boom in North Americais expected to spur the demand for these chemicals.

·       Hydro-metallurgical extraction of nickel and cobaltcompounds from limonite laterite ores.

Special features ofUnitel’s H2S technology:

·       Unitel’s process offers an exceptionally broadturndown ratio ranging from 100% down to 30% and can rapidly respond to changesin operating conditions.

·       The process is designed to deal with a variety ofsulfur feedstocks. Ash build-up in the reactor is handled by periodicallyblowing down sulfur to maintain the ash level below a prescribed minimum.

·       The process can deal with up to 50 ppm of the 8S form of sulfurthat may be present in the feedstock.