Two factories have been inaugurated at Shahid Soleimani Sulfur Complex in the northeastern Sarakhs County, Khorasan Razavi Province, to reduce raw sulfur sales and convert lump sulfur into more valuable forms.
With the launch of the new factories, constructed at a cost of $15 million, four factories are operating at the complex to help complete the sulfur value chain, the Oil Ministry’s news agency Shana reported.
The factories, financed by the private sector, include a plant to produce sulfur bentonite with a capacity of 72,000 tons a year, and another plant to produce granular sulfur with an annual capacity of 150,000 tons.
Lump sulfur is the raw formation of recovered sulfur. The greatest commercial use of the element is the production of sulfuric acid, the world's most widely used chemical, sulfate and phosphate fertilizers, and other chemical processes. Sulfur is granulated for easy application through any type spreader.
Sulfur bentonite is a combination of pure sulfur and bentonite clay. It is used as a secondary nutrient and also to correct alkaline soil problems. Sulfur is one of the 17 essential plant nutrients that helps in the formation of essential enzymes and plant proteins.
“The two plants have been constructed by Iranian engineers and knowledge-based companies that indigenized the sulfur production process,” said the head of Shahid Hasheminejad Gas Refining Company, which is to provide the complex with sulfur.
“The refinery produces a maximum of 2,000 tons of sulfur per day. The company had previously faced the problem of storing 2.5 million tons of sulfur, which caused safety and environmental problems. So it had to transport raw sulfur to Bandar Abbas in southern Iran for exporting it to India and China,” Yahya Faizi added.
Now, using the expertise of knowledge-based companies and private sector investment, sulfur will be delivered to the factories in molten form and converted to granular sulfur with a value added of $15 and bentonite fertilizer with a threefold higher value added.
“The implementation of this project, in addition to using 100% domestic equipment, has created direct employment for 150 people in the deprived and border area of Sarakhs,” he said.
Faizi noted that with the completion of other projects, Sarakhs will become a sulfur hub in the Middle East.
