Sulfuric Acid Manufacture

Professor William George Davenport is a graduate of the University of British Columbia and the Royal School of Mines, London. Prior to his academic career he worked with the Linde Division of Union Carbide in Tonawanda, New York. He spent a combined 43 years of teaching at McGill University and the University of Arizona.His Union Carbide days are recounted in the book Iron Blast Furnace, Analysis, Control and Optimization (English, Chinese, Japanese, Russian and Spanish editions).During the early years of his academic career he spent his summers working in many of Noranda Mines Company’s metallurgical plants, which led quickly to the book Extractive Metallurgy of Copper. This book has gone into five English language editions (with several printings) and Chinese, Farsi and Spanish language editions.He also had the good fortune to work in Phelps Dodge’s Playas flash smelter soon after coming to the University of Arizona. This experience contributed to the book Flash Smelting, with two English language editions and a Russian language edition and eventually to the book Sulfuric Acid Manufacture (2006), 2nd edition 2013.In 2013 co-authored Extractive Metallurgy of Nickel, Cobalt and Platinum Group Metals, which took him to all the continents except Antarctica.He and four co-authors are just finishing up the book Rare Earths: Science, Technology, Production and Use, which has taken him around the United States, Canada and France, visiting rare earth mines, smelters, manufacturing plants, laboratories and recycling facilities.Professor Davenport’s teaching has centered on ferrous and non-ferrous extractive metallurgy. He has visited (and continues to visit) about 10 metallurgical plants per year around the world to determine the relationships between theory and industrial practice. He has also taught plant design and economics throughout his career and has found this aspect of his work particularly rewarding. The delight of his life at the university has, however, always been academic advising of students on a one-on-one basis.Professor Davenport is a Fellow (and life member) of the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum and a twenty-five year member of the (U.S.) Society of Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration. He is recipient of the CIM Alcan Award, the TMS Extractive Metallurgy Lecture Award, the AusIMM Sir George Fisher Award, the AIME Mineral Industry Education Award, the American Mining Hall of Fame Medal of Merit and the SME Milton E. Wadsworth award. In September 2014 he will be honored by the Conference of Metallurgists’ Bill Davenport Honorary Symposium in Vancouver, British Columbia (his home town).

• 1. Overview2. Production and Consumption3. Sulfur Burning4. Metallurgical Offgas Cooling and Cleaning5. Regeneration of Spent Sulfuric Acid6. Dehydrating Air and Gases with Strong Sulfuric Acid7. Catalytic Oxidation of SO2 to SO38.SO2 Oxidation Catalyst and Catalyst Beds9. Production of H2SO4(ℓ) from SO3(g)10. Oxidation of SO2 to SO3 – Equilibrium Curves11. SO2 Oxidation Heatup Paths12. Maximum SO2 Oxidation: Heatup Path-Equilibrium Curve Intercepts13. Cooling 1st Catalyst Bed Exit Gas14. 2nd Catalyst Bed Heatup Path15. Maximum SO2 Oxidation in a 2nd Catalyst Bed16. 3rd Catalyst Bed SO2 Oxidation17. SO3 and CO2 in Feed Gas18. 3 Catalyst Bed Acid Plants19. After-H2SO4-Making SO2 Oxidation20. Optimum Double Contact Acidmaking21. Enthalpies and Enthalpy Transfers22. Control of Gas Temperature by Bypassing23. H2SO4 Making24. Acid Temperature Control and Heat Recovery25. Making Sulfuric Acid from Wet Feed Gas26. Other New Sulfuric Acid Manufacturing Processes27. SO3 Gas Recycle for High SO2 Concentration Gas Treatment28. Sulfur-from-Tailgas Removal Processes29. Minimizing Sulfur Emissions30. Optim

"The 2006 first edition has been updated with seven new chapters, and one additional author, Moats…They consider such topics as metallurgical offgas cooling and cleaning, the catalytic oxidation of S2 to S3, the second catalyst bed heatup path, the three catalyst bed acid plant, acid temperature and control and heat recovery, wet sulfuric acid process fundamentals, and the cost of sulfuric acid production." --Reference & Research Book News, December 2013