Due to government regulation, sulfur-treating units are a necessary part of today's refining businesses. Sulfur reaction furnaces are high temperature aggressive environments requiring the use of specialty materials. Due to their high melting temperatures and low reactivity, high alumina ceramic materials are ideally suited to this service. However, process upsets including contamination and uncontrolled shutdowns from these elevated temperatures can still cause failure of these materials. This paper discusses the recent failure of a high alumina ceramic thermowell in an oxygen enriched sulfur reaction furnace. The thermowell failed while operating at a temperature 2700°F (1500°C). Laboratory analyses including SEM, EDX, Thermal Gravimetric Analysis, and Differential Thermal Analysis were carried out in an effort to identify mechanisms of degradation, microstructural analysis, and phase transitional analysis. The influences of other operational conditions as well as several proposed solutions are also discussed.

Subject
Sulfur, Materials, Contamination, Thermal shock, Microstructure, Thermocouples, Iron, Refineries, Failure analysis, Furnaces, Mechanical failure, Oxygen, Elements
Keywords:
Claus process, thermowell, sulfur reaction furnace, alumina, hercynite
© 2005 Association for Materials Protection and Performance (AMPP). All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of AMPP. Positions and opinions advanced in this work are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of AMPP. Responsibility for the content of the work lies solely with the author(s).
2005
Association for Materials Protection and Performance (AMPP)
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