Are you interested in increasing production capacity while decreasing carbon footprint emissions? That's exactly what BASF’s Sulfuric Acid Catalysts' team achieved together with partner Clark Solutions.

For the past seven years, Elekeiroz, BASF, and Clark have collaborated to incrementally upgrade Elekeiroz’s sulfuric acid plant in Várzea Paulista, Brazil. These upgrades have included equipment replacement and, notably, a bed four catalyst replacement to BASF’s O4- 115 Quattro, which enabled a significant capacity increase and emissions decrease.

In 1909, Elekeiroz established the first sulfuric acid plant in Latin America, which was part of Elekeiroz’s chemical manufacturing complex that rotated its production to include vegetal extracts, organic acids and anhydrides, formaldehyde and alcohols, and plasticizers. Sulfuric acid has always been a key product for the company, along with the energy the acid plant provided to the other unit operations. The sulfuric acid plant was replaced periodically as technologies and demands evolved. Over time, the company became surrounded by residential neighborhoods, necessitating strict emission control.

BASF has produced sulfuric acid since 1868 at its headquarters in Ludwigshafen,

in Germany, where four sulfuric acid units are operated to this day. In 1913, BASF was granted the sulfuric acid catalyst (V2O5/K2O/SiO2) patent, upon which today’s catalyst technologies are based market wide. In recent years, BASF has made breakthroughs in catalyst shape, leading to a step change in the available catalyst performance and potential for plant upgrades.

Clark Solutions was the first manufacturer of numerous sulfuric acid plant devices in the southern hemisphere and has since adapted new products and technologies to a wide range of markets, from oil platforms and refineries to petrochemicals, fertilizers, and biofuels. Its wide-ranging presence and diversified experience fostered proficiency in cross-market solutions by bringing perspectives from one industry to another. This article presents the series of activities undertaken by these companies from 2015 to 2022 to enable a considerable capacity revamp on an outmoded plant.

Read the rest of the article here as featured in Sulfuric Acid Today 2022 and learn about the great impact of BASFs O4-115 Quattro catalyst.