PREFACE
Downloaded by 80.82.77.83 on January 8, 2018 | http://pubs.acs.org Publication Date: March 29, 1982 | doi: 10.1021/bk-1982-0183.pr001
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uring the late 1960's and 1970's free world production and consumption of sulfur have changed significantly, especially in North America. Because of the very nature of sulfur sources and uses, the future holds the potential for some major shifts in the traditional patterns. In the spring of 1981 a Sulfur Symposium held as part of the 181st Annual ACS Meeting in Atlanta attempted to review the potential for new sulfur production and utilization (traditional production and consumption technology was not addressed), and this volume is based on the papers presented. On the supply side, sulfur production is now controlled more by the demand for energy through the desulfurization of fuels than by the demand for sulfur per se, and this tendency is increasing. In 1965 involuntary byproduct recovered sulfur amounted to less than 20% of total elemental sulfur production in the United States and Canada, but by 1980 over 60% of all elemental sulfur resulted from refinery and natural gas processing operations. Many future hydrocarbon energy sources (coal, deep gas, heavy oil, shale, etc.) contain considerably more sulfur compared with conventional hydrocarbon fuels, and thus their exploitation will add to the ever increasing supply of "by-product" sulfur. On the demand side, consumption has experienced less noticeable shifting of traditional patterns, but environmental restrictions, new process developments, and world economics have all imposed some alterations on end uses. In addition to these changes, recent political difficulties have adversely affected some of the major world suppliers of sulfur. Clearly, the balance between sulfur supply and demand, which has traditionally been somewhat variable, is now more unstable because the potential exists for major shifts in supply/demand patterns. Because it is inevitable that new energy sources will have the greatest impact on sulfur supply, the majority of the papers in this symposium address the questions of the potential and problems of sulfur production from fuel desulfurization of deep sour gas, heavy oil, tar sands, coal, and oil shales. The chapters cover a variety of topics from the production, handling and processing of sulfur-bearing process streams to estimates of future sulfur production from new energy sources, and thus provide an insight into the emerging technology of new sulfur production and its supply potential. ix
Raymont; Sulfur: New Sources and Uses ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 1982.
Downloaded by 80.82.77.83 on January 8, 2018 | http://pubs.acs.org Publication Date: March 29, 1982 | doi: 10.1021/bk-1982-0183.pr001
Because of predictions and realities of excess sulfur production, a significant amount of research has been devoted towards finding new uses for elemental sulfur. Spearheaded by the U.S. Bureau of Mines and the Sulphur Development Institute of Canada (SUDIC), this research has focused on finding potential large volume uses for sulfur that take advantage of its unique properties resulting in genuinely useful new materials rather than "throw away uses." Principal among these new products are sulfur asphalts and sulfur concretes. Although this brief symposium cannot cover all the advances in these fields, the new use chapters summarize the current state of the art and review recent attempts at commercial developments of these technologies. In this respect, these papers update the laboratory and pilot plant research on new sulfur uses described in two earlier ACS volumes (Advances in Chemistry Series No. 140 and 165). Finally, I am very grateful to all the authors for their contributions, and to the symposium attendees who demonstrated the strong interest and enthusiasm that exists in the whole field of sulfur chemistry. I hope this volume will be both of use to, and an encouragement to researchers and practitioners in the field. MICHAEL E. D. RAYMONT
Sulphur Development Institute of Canada (SUDIC) Calgary, Alberta, Canada October 5, 1981
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Raymont; Sulfur: New Sources and Uses ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 1982.
