UNIT 1
Sulphur
■ Sulphur, also spelled as “sulfur” is a nonmetallic, odorless,
tasteless chemical element, insoluble in water, having the
Periodic Table atomic symbol of “S”.
■ Sulphur may appear as a gas, liquid, or solid. As a mineral,
sulphur appears as a pale yellow, brittle crystalline form
■ Exists in 2 forms:
➢ Rhombic, mp :112.8°C
➢ Monoclinic, mp:119°C
■ Boiling Point : 444.6°C
■ In Earth Crust: 5th most common by mass
■ 10th in universe
■ Insoluble in water, soluble in organic solvents and liquid NH3
SULFUR - USES
■ The main use of sulphur is in the preparation of SO2 which is used in the
manufacture of sulphuric acid.
■ Sulphur is used in the manufacture of carbon disulphate, sodium
thiosulphate, gun powder, matches and in fireworks.
■ Sulphur is used on vulcanization of rubber. Natural rubber is soft and
sticky. Heating it with sulphur makes it hard non-sticky and more elastic.
This process of heating of natural rubber with sulphur is known as
vulcanization.
■ Sulphur is used as fungicide and insecticide in agriculture and as a
disinfectant in medicines.
■ Sulphur is used in ointments for curing skin diseases.
■ Sulphur is used to give specific shapes to the hair and for anti-dandruff
agent.
Raw Materials Sources
■ Elemental sulphur
■ Pyrites (sulphide of iron)
■ From Sour gas (Natural gas) containing H2S
India :
■ Pyrite deposits in Amjhore Bihar
■ Puga valley in Kashmir but difficult to mine due to terrain conditions
Classification of processes
Recovery of sulphur is done in three basic ways:
■ Elemental sulfur mining from salt domes (USA)
■ Hydrogen sulfide conversion from natural gas and industrial
gases (Indian refineries and many U S refineries)
■ Iron pyrites from Amjhore in Bihar
Elemental sulphur mining by Frasch process
Process Description
Major Engineering problems
Recovered sulphur from H2S gas
(Claus Process)
Raw Materials:
H2S from natural (sour) gas and petroleum refinery streams, air
Chemical Reactions
Elemental sulphur from Pyrites (Finnish Process)
Major Engineering Problems
■ Pyrites ore beneficiation
■ Grinding
■ Substitution of coal for fuel oil
■ Gaseous reactions in the smelting furnace
■ Two stage catalytic reactor design
Sulphuric acid
■ Sulfuric acid is perhaps the most fundamentally
important, in that it has a number of large -scale
uses within the chemical industry
■ By far the most important user is the phosphate
fertilizer industry.
■ Applications of sulfuric acid are found in metal
processing, petroleum refining, pigment
production, steel pickling, nonferrous metals
extraction, and the manufacture of explosives,
detergents, plastics, and man-made fibers.
Properties
■ Pure sulfuric acid H2SO4, Mw 98.08, is a colorless, water-white, slightly
viscous liquid, melting point 10.4 °C, boiling point 279.6 ° C, and density
1.8356.
■ It can be mixed with water in any ratio.
■ Aqueous sulfuric acid solutions are defined by their H2SO4 content in
weight-percent terms.
■ Sulfuric acid will dissolve any quantity of SO3, forming Oleum (“fuming
sulfuric acid”).
Manufacturing Process
The manufacture of Sulphuric acid is carried out by two processes:
1. The Lead Chamber process
2. The Contact process.
■ Both processes are based on SO2
■ Chamber process was developed first (1746) but produced acid of concentration less than 80%.
It is less efficient than the contact process. Contact process yields 98% H2SO4 and higher which
can be diluted, if necessary.
■ The main principle of the chamber process is that the moist sulphur dioxide is oxidized
by the oxygen of the air into sulphur trioxide in the presence of gaseous nitrogen oxide
acting as catalyst. These large chambers are lined with sheets of lead. Sulphur trioxide
combined with water to form sulphuric acid.
Contact Process
Sources of raw material
The sources of sulfur and sulfur dioxide are as follows
■ Sulfur from mines
■ Sulfur or hydrogen sulfide recovered from petroleum desulfurization
■ Recovery of sulfur dioxide from the smelting of metal sulfide ores
2PbS + 3O2 2PbO + 2SO2
■ Isolation of SO2 from pyrite
Burning of sulphur
Catalytic oxidation of SO2
Hydration of SO3
Sodium thiosulfate
Crystals