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• The research results closely follow China's latest national standards for the natural gas industry. • Providing a detailed comparison of two main kinds of tail gas treatment processes used in China's natural gas industry for the first time. • The calculation data comes from the actual data of the natural gas treatment plant in the Sichuan basin. • Multiple built project data are used for analysis and validation. China's newest SO 2 emission policy for the natural gas industry forced natural gas treatment plant to add sulfur recovery tail gas treatment unit. In this context, the oxidation absorption process has been applied for the first time in Sichuan Basin. However, the advantages and disadvantages of this process compared with the traditional reduction absorption process have not been reported. The two processes were compared from the technical angle in this paper. The data of one plant in Sichuan Basin was selected as the simulation condition. The calculation results showed good agreement with plants data. The solution circulation amount of oxidation absorption process were 19 and 18.52 m3/h, which were just 20 %∼25 % of that for reduction absorption process. Meanwhile the acid gas returned amount was only about 14 % of reduction absorption process. However, the main process gas flow was 1.5 times of reduction absorption process. Regarding the utility consumptions, the oxidation absorption process had more advantages in electricity consumption, but it was inferior in fuel gas and circulating water consumption. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]