Most of the sulfur used in the United States is chemically synthesized from hydrogen sulfide gas recovered from natural gas wells. In the first step of this synthesis, called the Claus process, hydrogen sulfide gas is reacted with dioxygen gas to produce gaseous sulfur dioxide and water. Suppose a chemical engineer studying a new catalyst for the Claus reaction finds that 994 liters per second of dioxygen are consumed when the reaction is run at 170.0 oC and the dioxygen is supplied at 0.77 atm. Calculate the rate at which sulfur dioxide is being produced.

the rate at which sulfur dioxide is being produced is 0.8993 kg per second

Explanation:

Given the data in the question;

we write the balanced chemical reaction

2H₂S + 3O₂ → 2SO₂ + 2H₂O

now we calculate the number of moles of oxygen by using an ideal gas equation; PV = nRT

n = PV/RT

so we substitute in our values

n = ( 0.77 × 1.01325 × 10⁵ × 994 × 10⁻³ ) / ( 8.314 × (170 + 273 )

n = 77552.1285 / 3683.102

n = 21.056 mol

so, moles of SO₂  produced = 2/3 × 21.056 = 14.0373 moles

Hence, the production rate will be;

⇒ 14.0373 × 64.066

= 899.3 g/s

= 0.8993 kg/s

Therefore, the rate at which sulfur dioxide is being produced is 0.8993 kg per second