Sulphuric acid Italy

Occurrence.—Although a relatively rare element, selenium is fairly widespread in nature,1 being frequently found in small quantities both in the combined state in pyrites and sulphide ores 2 and also in the free state in the volcanic sulphur deposits 3 of Italy, Hawaii and the Lipari Islands. In the sulphur deposits the selenium is usually present in the form of an isomorphous mixture with the sulphur. Its occurrence in Swedish pyrites (from Falun) led to the discovery of the element by J. J. Berzelius in 1817,4 during an examination of the deposit formed in the lead chambers of a sulphuric acid plant. Owing to the striking chemical resemblance of the new element to tellurium (see p. 351), Berzelius assigned it the name selenium (Gk. selene, the moon), which, in order to indicate the metalloid nature of the element, is sometimes modified into selenion. 

In Italy and France phosgene was prepared during the first years of the war of 1914-18 from carbon tetrachloride and fuming sulphuric acid according to the method of Schiittzenberger modified by Grignard. ... 

Manufacture It is produced naturally in Toscana in Italy as a component of steam issuing from the earth this is condensed to a 0.5% boric acid solution. Generally it is manufactured from borax by ad Sing sulphuric acid to it ... 

This, the oldest industrial method, was used by one company in the USA up to 1978 (ref.7), and in Italy and the former German Democratic Republic in more recent times. Benzene can be monosulphonated with 100% sulphuric acid in 100% excess at 65-100°C although it has been considered more economical to use less acid and remove the water formed azeotropically. The benzenesulphonic acid formed is converted to the sodium salt by neutralisation... 

Reference soil was collected in a reference site in Elorence (Italy). Real soil samples were collected in the Associated National Chemical Companies (ACNA) site (Cengio, SV, Italy). ACNA is a closed organic chemical industrial factory active since 1882 with the production of explosives (nitroglycerin, dynamite, and trinitrotoluene), paints, nitric and sulphuric acids, phenols, and amines, with serious levels of contamination of soil and surface waters, where a remediation and bonification plan started in 1999. The serious enviromnental contamination of this area determined its inclusion in the list of national priorities for enviromnental reclamation. The sampling was performed from the soil layers (0-30 cm) in a specific ACNA site, called hill n°5, on March 2003. The hill was made of waste from the industry accumulated during the years and was divided into four zones zone 1 with low contamination level zone 2 with pseudoreference zone 3 with moderate pollution level, and zone 4 with high ecological risk. 

Atypically, there are a few materials which occur in an elemental form. Perhaps the most notable example is sulphur, which occurs in underground deposits in areas such as Louisiana, Southern Italy and Poland. It can be brought to the surface using the Frasch process in which it is first melted by superheated steam and then forced to the surface by compressed air. This produces sulphur of high purity. Substantial quantities of sulphur are also removed and recovered from natural gas and crude oil (petroleum). This amounted to 24 million tonnes out of a total world sulphur production of 37 million tonnes in 1991, and clearly demonstrates the vast scale on which the oil and petrochemical industries operate since crude oil normally contains between 0.1 and 2.5% of sulphur, depending on its source. Desulphurization of flue gases from some U.K. power stations will be another source of sulphur in the future. Over 80% of all sulphur is converted into sulphuric acid, and approximately half of this is then used in fertilizer manufacture. 

In a paper on the analysis of mineral water from a place near an alum mine in Italy Lavoisier reports that the compound of alumina and sulphuric acid does not crystallise well, that to form true alum it is necessary, as M. Marggraf observed , to add fixed alkali (potash), and that the base of alum is not a simple earth, as all chemists have hitherto supposed, but a compound of an earth, with a third or half its weight of fixed alkali... as already remarked by M. Macquer (Marggraf). It is probable that alums could be formed with soda, magnesia (. ), lime, and perhaps ammonia. 

Sulphuric acid was produced by the lead chamber process, originally from Sicilian sulphur, then from the cheaper pyrites. As the demand for sulphuric acid grew, Montecatini Mining Co. Limited (founded in 1888, and the forerunner of the present Montecatini Company) increased pyrites mining at the Boccheggiano field in Tuscany. In 1910 it acquired a monopoly over pyrites in Italy. Sulphur dioxide was produced, at first in Maletra, and then in Herreschoff or Kauihiann kilns. 

In spite the substantial wine production in Italy, tartaric acid began to be industrially produced only in the early 1900s by the Appula Company, at Barletta, near Bari, in southern Italy, by the Fabbrica Lombarda di Acido Tartarico (Lombard Tartaric Acid Producers), of Milan, by the Arenella Company, of Palermo, and by others of less importance. The raw calcium tartrate was produced by treating grape dregs with lime, and free acid was obtained from the reaction between tartrate and sulphuric acid. Tartaric acid production rose from 3,600 tons in 1910 to 4,000 tons in 1915, but fell to 1,900 tons in 1918. " ... 

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