Sulfuric Acid → Fuming sulfuric acid

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Reaction Steps

It can be seen that these figures represent a 99.7% conversion of sulfur dioxide to sulfur trioxide and, therefore, a sulfur trioxide:sulfur dioxide ratio in the effluent of about 340:1. Cooling this effluent to 40° C. will condense 88% of the sulfur trioxide without condensing the sulfur dioxide to produce a liquid of pure sulfur trioxide, and a remaining gas mixture of 60.80% oxygen, 28.95% sulfur trioxide, 9.56% nitrogen, and 0.69% sulfur dioxide. Such remaining gas mixture can be absorbed in sulfuric acid in a conventional fashion and passed through a demister to produce a stack gas of 85.5% oxygen, 13.46% nitrogen and 0.97% sulfur dioxide. The sulfuric acid produced could be mixed with a portion of the liquid sulfur trioxide to produce one or more oleum products of varying strengths.

Provenance & Evidence