Process for producing sulfur

Claim 1

A process for producing sulfur from an acid gas containing hydrogen sulfide and other sulfur compounds, said process comprising a. combusting said acid gas partially to produce a process gas stream containing hydrogen sulfide sulfur and sulfur dioxide; b. catalytically reacting the hydrogen sulfide, with sulfur dioxide in said process gas stream in a Claus process reactor and condensing sulfur from the catalytically reacted stream with a cooling system to produce a further gas stream containing residual sulfurous components; c. passing said further gas stream at a lower temperature than that of the catalytic reaction of step (b) over an active adsorbent to load said adsorbent with sulfur and produce another gas stream; d. afterburning the gas stream produced in step (c) which still contains rasidual sulfur and residual H 2 S with oxygen to produce a hot exhaust gas stream substantially free from hydrogen sulfide and sulfur and consisting mainly of sulfur dioxide; e. desorbing the laden adsorbent from step (c)by e 1 . circulating a desorption gas in closed cycle through said laden adsorbent; e 2 . heating said desorption gas before it contacts said laden adsorbent along said closed cycle by passing it in heat exchange with said hot exhaust gas from step (d); and e 3 . condensing sulfur from said desorption gas after it has contacted said laden adsorbent along said cycle with said cooling system from step (b), e 4 . said cooling system containing water; f. generating water vapor thereby by said cooling, and g. condensing said generated water vapor and recycling same by gravity to step (e 3 ) to condense the sulfur.