Today while oil and gas refinery, it is unavoidable that the by-product is formed – sulfur, being a source of additional profit. The demand for liquid sulfur is constantly growing.
The main problem during transportation (in pipelines) and storage (in tanks) of liquid sulfur at a temperature range 113 °C to 140 °C is the high energy costs for maintaining such a temperature, which necessarily falls on its cost. Maintaining the sulfur in a liquid state during its storage and transportation through pipelines prior to shipment by tank-cars is carried out by steam jackets, which are common in this area but have significant drawbacks: high heat-carrier consumption, large dimensions, repair complexity, impossibility of detecting leaks inside the jackets, high loads on the supporting structures of pipelines due to high metal consumption of the jackets.
Also, to maintain sulfur in a liquid state, electrical heating is used, which has a number of disadvantages to solve this problem: the need for a large amount of free electrical power at substations and in electrical networks, high costs for electrical energy, costs of maintaining the substations electrical networks, the need to involve a specially trained personnel, sparking danger. All these factors can lead to fire and explosion in an explosive and fire hazardous facility. There is a danger of electric shock to personnel.
