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    What Is The Contact Process

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    Ismat Taha
    The contact process is a chemical procedure used to produce sulfuric acid industrially. It involves 3 steps: 1) producing sulfur dioxide by burning sulfur in air or heating sulfide ores in air, 2) converting sulfur dioxide to sulfur trioxide in an exothermic reaction using oxygen, and 3) dissolving the sulfur trioxide in concentrated sulfuric acid to form oleum, which can then react with water to produce more sulfuric acid. For the second step, a temperature of 400-450°C, atmospheric pressure, and a catalyst are used to maximize sulfur trioxide production while keeping the reaction rate high.

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    What Is The Contact Process

    Uploaded by

    Ismat Taha
    74 views9 pages
    The contact process is a chemical procedure used to produce sulfuric acid industrially. It involves 3 steps: 1) producing sulfur dioxide by burning sulfur in air or heating sulfide ores in air, 2) converting sulfur dioxide to sulfur trioxide in an exothermic reaction using oxygen, and 3) dissolving the sulfur trioxide in concentrated sulfuric acid to form oleum, which can then react with water to produce more sulfuric acid. For the second step, a temperature of 400-450°C, atmospheric pressure, and a catalyst are used to maximize sulfur trioxide production while keeping the reaction rate high.

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    The contact process is a chemical procedure used to produce sulfuric acid industrially. It involves 3 steps: 1) producing sulfur dioxide by burning sulfur in air or heating sulfide ores in air, 2) converting sulfur dioxide to sulfur trioxide in an exothermic reaction using oxygen, and 3) dissolving the sulfur trioxide in concentrated sulfuric acid to form oleum, which can then react with water to produce more sulfuric acid. For the second step, a temperature of 400-450°C, atmospheric pressure, and a catalyst are used to maximize sulfur trioxide production while keeping the reaction rate high.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pptx, pdf, or txt
    74 views9 pages

    What Is The Contact Process

    Uploaded by

    Ismat Taha
    The contact process is a chemical procedure used to produce sulfuric acid industrially. It involves 3 steps: 1) producing sulfur dioxide by burning sulfur in air or heating sulfide ores in air, 2) converting sulfur dioxide to sulfur trioxide in an exothermic reaction using oxygen, and 3) dissolving the sulfur trioxide in concentrated sulfuric acid to form oleum, which can then react with water to produce more sulfuric acid. For the second step, a temperature of 400-450°C, atmospheric pressure, and a catalyst are used to maximize sulfur trioxide production while keeping the reaction rate high.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pptx, pdf, or txt
    of 9

    WHAT IS THE CONTACT PROCESS

    • Contact process is a chemical procedure that creates sulfuric


    acid for industrial purposes such as in paints, detergents,
    fertilizers, and plastic products.
    STEP 1: MAKING SULFUR DIOXIDE

    This can either be made by burning sulfur in an excess of air:

    S(s)+O2(g)→SO2(g)(1)(1)S(s)+O2(g)→SO2(g)

    or by heating sulfide ores like pyrite in an excess of air:

    4FeS2(s)+11O2(g)→2Fe2O3(s)+8SO2(g)

    In either case, an excess of air is used so that the sulfur dioxide


    produced is already mixed with oxygen for the next stage.
    STEP 2: CONVERTING SULFUR DIOXIDE INTO SULFUR
    TRIOXIDE

    This is a reversible reaction and exothermic.

    2SO2(g)+O2(g)⇌2SO3(g)ΔH=−196kJ/mol

    A flow scheme for this part of the process looks like this:
    STEP 3: CONVERTING SULFUR TRIOXIDE INTO SULFURIC
    ACID

    This cannot be done by simply adding water to the sulfur trioxide; the
    reaction is so uncontrollable that it creates a fog of sulfuric acid.
    Instead, the sulfur trioxide is first dissolved in concentrated sulfuric
    acid:

    H2SO4(l)+SO3(g)→H2S2O7(l)

    The product is known as fuming sulfuric acid or oleum, which can


    then be reacted safely with water to produce concentrated sulfuric acid
    - twice as much originally used to make the fuming sulfuric acid.

    H2S2O7(l)+H2O(l)→2H2SO4(l)
    CONDITIONS NEEDED FOR THEE
    CONTACT PROCESS
    Temperature

    Equilibrium considerations:
     You need to shift the position of the equilibrium as far as possible to the right in order to
    produce the maximum possible amount of sulfur trioxide in the equilibrium mixture. The forward
    reaction (the production of sulfur trioxide) is exothermic.

    Rate considerations: 
    The lower the temperature you use, the slower the reaction becomes. A manufacturer is trying to
    produce as much sulfur trioxide as possible per day. It makes no sense to try to achieve an
    equilibrium mixture which contains a very high proportion of sulfur trioxide if it takes several
    years for the reaction to reach that equilibrium. You need the gases to reach equilibrium within
    the very short time that they will be in contact with the catalyst in the reactor.

    The compromise: 
    400 - 450°C is a compromise temperature producing a fairly high proportion of sulfur trioxide in
    the equilibrium mixture, but in a very short time.
    CONDITIONS NEEDED FOR THEE
    CONTACT PROCESS
    Pressure
    Equilibrium considerations:

    2SO2(g)+O2(g)⇌2SO3(g) ΔH=−196kJ/mol

    Notice that there are three molecules on the left-hand side of the equation, but only two on
    the right. According to Le Châtelier's Principle, if you increase the pressure the system will
    respond by favoring the reaction which produces fewer molecules. That will cause the
    pressure to fall again. To get as much sulfur trioxide as possible in the equilibrium mixture,
    you need as high a pressure as possible. High pressures also increase the rate of the
    reaction. However, the reaction is done at pressures close to atmospheric pressure!

    Economic considerations: Even at these relatively low pressures, there is a 99.5%


    conversion of sulfur dioxide into sulfur trioxide. The very small improvement that you
    could achieve by increasing the pressure isn't worth the expense of producing those high
    pressures.
    CONDITIONS NEEDED FOR THEE
    CONTACT PROCESS
    Catalyst
    Equilibrium considerations:
     The catalyst has no effect whatsoever on the position of the equilibrium. Adding a
    catalyst doesn't produce any greater percentage of sulfur trioxide in the equilibrium
    mixture. Its only function is to speed up the reaction.

    Rate considerations:
     In the absence of a catalyst the reaction is so slow that virtually no reaction happens
    in any sensible time. The catalyst ensures that the reaction is fast enough for a
    dynamic equilibrium to be set up within the very short time that the gases are actually
    in the reactor.
    REFRENCE

    • chem.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Physical_and_Theoretical_C
    hemistry_Textbook_Maps/Supplemental_Modules_(Physical_
    and_Theoretical_Chemistry)/Equilibria/Le_Chateliers_Princip
    le/The_Contact_Process

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