Sulfur recovery plant and process using oxygen

Claim 1

Process for the recovery of sulfur from a gaseous stream containing hydrogen sulfide, said process comprising the steps of: (a) introducing a thermal reaction mixture comprising (1) said gaseous stream containing hydrogen sulfide, and (2) an oxygen-enriched stream of air or pure oxygen into a combustion zone of a Claus furnace; (b) combusting said thermal reaction mixture in said Claus furnace to thereby produce hot combustion gases comprising hydrogen sulfide, sulfur dioxide, carbon dioxide, water, and elemental sulfur; (c) introducing said hot combustion gases into a Claus catalytic reactor; (d) subjecting said hot combustion gases in said catalytic reactor to Claus reaction conditions in the presence of a Claus catalyst to thereby produce a Claus plant gaseous effluent stream comprising hydrogen sulfide, sulfur dioxide, carbon dioxide, water, and elemental sulfur; (e) introducing said Claus plant gaseous effluent into a condenser to thereby produce liquid sulfur, which is recovered, and a gaseous condenser effluent, which comprises hydrogen sulfide, sulfur dioxide, carbon dioxide and water; (f) converting substantially all sulfur species in said gaseous condenser effluent to hydrogen sulfide, to thereby form a condenser effluent comprising hydrogen sulfide, carbon dioxide and water; (g) removing water form the condenser effluent from step (f); and (h) moderating the temperature in said Claus furnace by returning at least a portion of the dried condenser effluent from step (g), as a diluent stream, to a combustion zone of the Claus furnace in step (a) above.