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Chemistry Forums for Students => Inorganic Chemistry Forum => Topic started by: Shannon Dove on February 08, 2019, 12:22:10 PM

Title: Sulfuric acid from the land
Post by: Shannon Dove on February 08, 2019, 12:22:10 PM
Would this work...grind up plant and animal material, let it decompose to make sewage / landfill gas, run the gas into a container of moist iron oxide, this should make iron sulfide from the hydrogen sulfide contained in the sewage gas, then heat the iron sulfide with air to form sulfer dioxide,...and turning that into sulfer trioxide... anyway, I would love to hear y'alls opinion about this idea.
I did read that landfills do infact use iron oxide to clean the hydrogen sulfide from landfill gas
Title: Re: Sulfuric acid from the land
Post by: chenbeier on February 08, 2019, 12:33:08 PM
Skip the step with iron oxide. Burn the gas directly
Title: Re: Sulfuric acid from the land
Post by: Borek on February 08, 2019, 12:40:57 PM
Doable - yes. Economical? Worth the effort? No (unless you mean a hobby or educational project).
Title: Re: Sulfuric acid from the land
Post by: Shannon Dove on February 08, 2019, 12:43:49 PM
The problem with burning the gas directly is the hydrogen sulfide is very dilute, about 1percent, sewage gas is mostly carbon dioxide and methane. The other problem is the gas is released very slowly, over the course of weeks and months, the iron oxide just sits there and patiently collect it
Title: Re: Sulfuric acid from the land
Post by: hanzdolo on February 12, 2019, 04:49:27 AM
The problem with burning the gas directly is the hydrogen sulfide is very dilute, about 1percent, sewage gas is mostly carbon dioxide and methane. The other problem is the gas is released very slowly, over the course of weeks and months, the iron oxide just sits there and patiently collect it

I'm not so familiar with hydrogen sulfide,however I play with sulfate quite a lot and I find the topic interesting and if the two behave similarly I would say react it with seawater as a means of obtaining the sulfide salt and oxidize or from what I understand just plain water and oxidation will do the trick.

As far as the oxidation I think O3 and UV light will do the trick but you could experiment with ferrates. I just think the Iron may become an issue later on.
Title: Re: Sulfuric acid from the land
Post by: Borek on February 12, 2019, 06:03:12 AM
if the two behave similarly

They don't.
Title: Re: Sulfuric acid from the land
Post by: hanzdolo on February 15, 2019, 08:51:15 AM
if the two behave similarly

They don't.

It should still form Hydrosulfide in water. Hydrogen Sulfide can then be formed by oxidation and Dihydrogen Sulfate by further oxidation in the correct environment.