I have had the opportunity over the last 10 years to work with John O’Connell and his team from Sulphur Recovery Engineering on two Modified Claus Sulphur Units located in Zama Lake Alberta and Rainbow Lake Alberta.
John is recognized both domestically as well as internationally as a predominant expert in the field of sulphur production and recovery, and I as a person who holds a leadership role have looked to John and SRE for technical knowledge and support during very difficult process situations.
John and his team using their unchallenged process knowledge and sound trouble shooting abilities have provided the correct actions and directions that my operations group has required in a reliable timely manner. All issues have concluded with positive outcomes resulting in minimized downtime and more efficient facility operation.”
“Sulfur Recovery Engineering has provided Suncor with analytical expertise for routine performance monitoring, start-up and shutdown assistance and periodic troubleshooting for difficult problems that affected sulfur recovery efficiency.
One troubleshooting scenario that SRE assisted with was to determine that when the amine plant was operated at different lean amine temperatures – it affected the hydrocarbon content of the acid gas. This in turn affected sulfur recovery. A second troubleshooting scenario was to determine that a leaking valve was causing a diminished sulfur recovery and they proposed a solution to temporarily address this. ”
— Suncor Energy Gavin Proudfoot – Process Engineering
“I have worked on several international projects utilizing Modified Claus Sulphur Units in the past several years in pre-commissioning and commissioning phases.
I have kept in correspondence with John and asked his opinion on issues that I would encounter during start up and operation of these new processing units and have always been given sound advice that I was able to utilize and apply to bring positive outcome to the projects I was working on.
In my personal opinion John O’Connell is the premier sulphur authority that exists in the industry today. I would fully recommend Sulfur Recovery Engineering and John O’Connell to any organization in the sour gas industry that is having issues with their sulphur recovery unit without hesitation.”
— Todd G. Burns
“With more and more constraint related to shutdown duration, SRE helped us to minimize the time required to cool down sulfur plant and allow reactor entry which put less constraint on shutdown planning. SRE also always provided us good analytical result and reports with a quick turnover that helped us in the unit troubleshooting.”
— Ultramar (Valero), Raffinerie Jean Gaulin Francois Jolibois, Ing. - Project Coordinator-Process Engineering
“Tesoro Refinery Brian D Sharp
On 3-19-15 Ryan was at the Tesoro Refinery in Mandan, ND to give a presentation on operating an SRU. Although we have a lot of information on the SRU I found that it was very beneficial to be able to ask questions. As an operator, one of the biggest concerns we have when starting/shutting down the SRU are reactor fires and or forming soot on the reactor beds. Ryan gave us good information on what to look for under these conditions and how to mitigate them. Another topic was doing a proper Sulfur sweep of the unit going into a shutdown. Ryan also provided us with good information on how to operate our furnace. We have two gas streams that go to the furnace and one of them is very high in NH3. Until this training I didn’t realize the effect this stream had on our total efficiency and what temperature it takes to burn off the NH3. On our last shutdown SRE was on site to assist with doing a proper sweep of the unit, I would like to see SRE come back again for out next shutdown. In my opinion I think Ryan should come back to Mandan in a year or two and give the same class again.”
