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    Contact Process: Manufacture of Sulphuric Acid

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    fatahlee
    Sulphuric acid is manufactured through the contact process, which involves 3 main stages: 1) Sulphur is burned in air or heated sulphides to produce sulphur dioxide. 2) Sulphur dioxide is oxidized to sulphur trioxide over a vanadium pentoxide catalyst at high temperatures. 3) Sulphur trioxide is absorbed in concentrated sulphuric acid to form oleum, which is then diluted with water to produce concentrated sulphuric acid.

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    Contact Process: Manufacture of Sulphuric Acid

    Uploaded by

    fatahlee
    473 views3 pages
    Sulphuric acid is manufactured through the contact process, which involves 3 main stages: 1) Sulphur is burned in air or heated sulphides to produce sulphur dioxide. 2) Sulphur dioxide is oxidized to sulphur trioxide over a vanadium pentoxide catalyst at high temperatures. 3) Sulphur trioxide is absorbed in concentrated sulphuric acid to form oleum, which is then diluted with water to produce concentrated sulphuric acid.

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    Contact Process

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    Sulphuric acid is manufactured through the contact process, which involves 3 main stages: 1) Sulphur is burned in air or heated sulphides to produce sulphur dioxide. 2) Sulphur dioxide is oxidized to sulphur trioxide over a vanadium pentoxide catalyst at high temperatures. 3) Sulphur trioxide is absorbed in concentrated sulphuric acid to form oleum, which is then diluted with water to produce concentrated sulphuric acid.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    473 views3 pages

    Contact Process: Manufacture of Sulphuric Acid

    Uploaded by

    fatahlee
    Sulphuric acid is manufactured through the contact process, which involves 3 main stages: 1) Sulphur is burned in air or heated sulphides to produce sulphur dioxide. 2) Sulphur dioxide is oxidized to sulphur trioxide over a vanadium pentoxide catalyst at high temperatures. 3) Sulphur trioxide is absorbed in concentrated sulphuric acid to form oleum, which is then diluted with water to produce concentrated sulphuric acid.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    of 3

    Manufacture of Sulphuric

    Acid

    o Sulphuric acid is made from sulphur dioxide, through the


    Contact Process.
    o The raw materials used to manufacture the acid are sulphur,
    air and water.
    o There are three stages for the production of sulphuric acid by
    the contact process.
    i. The production of sulphur dioxide
    ii. Formation of sulphur trioxide

    Contact Process

    Stage 1:The production of sulphur dioxide


    This can be obtained through two methods.
    a) Heating liquid sulphur with hot air in a furnace.

    S(s) + O2(g) → SO2 (g)

    b) Heating sulphides in air, for example:


    4FeS2 (s) + 11O2 (g) → 2Fe2O3 (s) +8SO2 (g)

    SO2 is a side product in the extraction of the metal, iron. [Fe 2O3 is reduced to iron with
    coke].Zinc pyrites can also be heated in air as follows:

    2ZnO (s) + 3O2 (g) → 2SO2 (g) + 2ZnO (s)

    Stage 2: Formation of sulphur trioxide


    a) Pure, dry sulphur dioxide is mixed with dry oxygen in excess and passed over vanadium (V)
    oxide, V2O5 as catalyst at a temperature of 450oC - 550oC and a pressure of 1 atmosphere. So
    by Le Chatelier's Principle, higher temperatures will force the equilibrium position to shift
    to the left hand side of the equation favouring the production of sulfur dioxide.
    Lower temperatures would favour the production of the product sulfur trioxide and result in a
    higher yield. The conditions ensure the maximum production of sulphur trioxide:

    2SO2 (g) + O2 (g) ⇋ 2SO3


    (g)
    b) The reaction takes place in a heat converter.
    c) Excess air is used to ensure a higher percentage of SO3 produced.

    Stage 3: Production of sulphuric acid


    a) Sulphur trioxide is passed through an absorption tower when it is absorbed by concentrated
    sulphuric acid to form a viscous liquid called olleum, H2S2O7.
    SO3 (g) + H2SO4 (l) → H2S2O7 (l)

    b) Oleum is diluted with water to obtain the required concentration of the acid, because
    oleum does not show any property of an acid. Equal volumes of water and oleum will give
    98% concentration of sulphuric acid:

    H2S2O7 (l) + H2O (l) → 2H2SO4 (l)


    *Oleum is also called fuming sulphuric acid.
    c) Water is not used to absorb SO3 as the reaction is extremely exothermic. The heat produced
    forms very fine mist on the acid which does not condense easily. The mist is corrosive and
    pollutes the air,that why this reaction is not carried out in industry. It is too vigorous.

    The flow chart of Contact Process:

    Sulphur (Burnt in air) Sulphur dioxide SO2 Sulphur trioxide SO3


    → *Further oxidation → Dissolves in
    *Catalyst: V2O5 concentrated sulphuric
    *Temperature: (450 -500) oC acid, H2SO4
    *Pressure:1 atmosphere (by Le
    Chatelier's Principle )
    ↓

    Concentrated of ← Oleum H2S2O7


    sulphuric acid, H2SO4 Dilute with water

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