Water → Sulfuric Acid

Participants

Reaction Steps

In one such sulfuric acid recovery facility, the contaminated sulfuric acid is introduced into a furnace along with fuel. The fuel/air mixture is combusted to generate the necessary heat to both vaporize the contaminated sulfuric acid and dissociate the acid and its associated contaminants to form water, carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide. These gaseous combustion products, together with the nitrogen contained in the air, exit the furnace and are passed firstly through a waste heat boiler to recover waste heat and then through a gas cleaning unit to remove water. Following water removal, the gas stream containing the sulphur dioxide is passed through a catalytic converter where the sulphur dioxide is reacted with oxygen to produce sulphur trioxide. The resulting product is then passed through an absorption tower in which the sulphur trioxide is reacted with water to produce sulfuric acid and/or oleum by the contact process.

Provenance & Evidence