Sulphuric Acid.doc

Sulphuric Acid Introduction Sulphuric acid is the chemical that is produced in the largest tonnage. Such is its importance as a raw material for other processes that its production was, until recently, considered a reliable indicator of a country’s industrial output and the level of its industrial development. It is still used in an incredible variety of different processes and remains one of the most important chemicals produced. Raw materials The raw material for sulphuric acid production is elemental sulphur , which can be obtained form several sources. Almost all the elemental sulphur produced is used in the manufacture of sulphuric acid. The biggest source used to be the direct mining of underground deposits of sulphur by the Frasch process. This involves injection of superheated water and air into the deposits of sulphur via drilling. The resulting aerated liquid sulphur-water-air mixture is buoyant enough to rise to the drill head where it can be separated into its components, and pure sulphur is recovered. The petrochemical industry now provides more sulphur (from the desulfurization of oil and gas) than the Frasch process. Some petrochemical deposits contain large quantities of sulphur-containing compounds(25% in some Russian deposits ) which must be removed to avoid poisoning the cracking catalysts or indeed the public (though the residual sulphur in some petrol is enough to cause bad hydrogen sulfide smells from some catalytic converters ). The process that removes the sulphur creates hydrogen sulfide which is easy to separate from oil and is easily converted to elemental sulphur. Some sulphur is also produced as a by-product of metal extraction. Many sulfide-containing metalores are burned as part of the extraction process, giving off sulphur dioxide, which can be recovered and used in the sulphuric acid industry. One untapped source of sulphre is the coal used in electricity generation. More sulphur is emitted from power stations