One chemical that is known as a strong acid is sulfuric acid (H2SO4). Do you know? That sulfuric acid is produced through sulfur (sulfur) processing , want to know the complete process? The following will be explained briefly
- Definition of sulfuric acid (H2SO4)
Sulfuric acid (H2SO4) is a strong mineral (inorganic) acid which is liquid, corrosive, colorless, odorless, highly reactive, and able to dissolve various metals.
This chemical can dissolve with water by any ratio, has a melting point of 10.31 ° C and a boiling point at 336.85 ° C depending on the density and at a temperature of 300 ° C or more decomposes to produce sulfur trioxide. Sulfuric acid is an inorganic acid which can be mass produced and in a large capacity. In general, each factory has a sulfuric acid processing unit to reduce the cost of purchasing raw materials.
In addition to chemicals that are highly reactive, sulfuric acid is also the chemical most widely used and is a very important technical product.
This substance is used as an ingredient for the manufacture of sulfate salts and for sulfonation, but more often it is used mainly because it is a strong and inexpensive inorganic acid. Sulfuric acid (H2SO4) can be made from balerang (S), pyrite (FeS), and also some metal sulfites (CuS, ZnS, NiS). In general, sulfuric acid is produced with levels of 78-98% and various concentrations. Broadly speaking, the stages of the contact process that occur are described as follows:
- Melting solid sulfur in melt tanks
- Purification of liquid sulfur by filtration
- Air drying process
- Combustion of liquid air with dry air to produce sulfur dioxide (SO2)
- The oxidation reaction of SO2 to SO3 in FOUR bed converter layers using V2O5 catalyst
- Gas cooling
- SO3 absorption with 93% -98.5% sulfuric acid
- Sulfuric Acid Manufacturing Process
sulfuric acid is produced from balerang, oxygen, and water through a contact process. In the first step, sulfur is heated to get sulfur dioxide.
S (S) + O2 (g) ——> SO2 (g)
Sulfur dioxide is then oxidized using oxygen in the presence of a catalyst of vanadium oxide (V2O5)
2SO2 + O2 (g) ——> 2SO3 (g) (in the presence of V2O5)
Sulfur trioxide is absorbed into 97-98% H2SO4 into oleum (H2S2O7), also known as smoky sulfuric acid.
Then the oleum is diluted into water to become concentrated sulfuric acid.
H2SO4 (I) + SO3 ——> H2S2O7 (I)
H2S2O7 (I) + H2O (I) ——> 2 H2SO4
Note that direct dissolution of SO3 into water is not practical because of the reaction of sulfur trioxide with water which is exothermic.
This reaction will form corrosive aerosols that are difficult to separate.
SO3 (g) + H2O (I) ——> 2 H2SO4 (I)
