The Production of Sulphuric Acid.

Most Sulphuric acid is made by the Contact Process. The raw materials for this process are:

Sulphur (from Sulphur deposit beneath the ground, from sulphide ores or from hydrogen
sulphide from petroleum or natural gas)
Air (from the atmosphere)
Water

There are three stages in the process: sulphur burning, sulphur dioxide conversion and absorption.

Sulphur Burning
A spray of molten sulphur is burned in a furnace in a current of dry air.

S(l) + O2(g) SO2(g)

The gas mixture which comes out of the burner contains about 10% sulphur dioxide and 10% oxygen by
volume.

Sulphur dioxide conversion

This is the key reaction in the process. The sulphur dioxide is passed into a reaction vessel (the
converter). The converter contains several layers (usually four) of vanadium(v) oxide catalyst, V 2O5, on a
silica support. In the converter sulphur dioxide is converted to Sulphuric trioxide.

2SO2(g) + O2 ⇔ 2SO3(g) ∆H O = -98 KJ mol-1

Since the reaction is exothermic, the heat is removed between each layer of catalyst by heat exchanges.
The percentage conversion of SO2 to SO3 is between 96-99.5%.

Absorption

The sulphur trioxide is absorbed into a 98% solution of Sulphuric acid. This happens in a tower called an
absorber. The tower is packed with ceramic material. The sulphur trioxide is not absorbed directly into
water. This is because a mist of corrosion Sulphuric acid is formed when sulphur trioxide reacts with
water and this does not condense very easily. The sulphur trioxide dissolves in the 98% Sulphuric acid to
form a thick liquid called oleum.