Baton Rouge area - environment

sulfur recovery unit

what does it do?
The sulfur recovery unit collects and removes sulfur molecules from the gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and other fuels produced at the Baton Rouge Refinery. Purification (treatment) is the last step of the refining process and is necessary in order to improve quality of our finished products. Sulfur is a natural component of crude oil.

why is it important?
The goal of the sulfur recovery unit technology and processes is to minimize the sulfur content in refinery fuel products.

This is important for reducing vehicle emissions since sulfur is a catalyst poison for catalytic converters on vehicles. Catalytic converters are the primary method of reducing emissions from vehicle exhaust.

how does it work?
As a part of the refining process, the sulfur molecules are collected and directed to the sulfur recovery unit. There, several reactors and combustion devices convert the sulfur molecules into elemental sulfur.

The elemental sulfur is useful because it can be further converted into ammonium sulfate, a fertilizer.