United States annual oxygen production

Sulfuric acid (H SO ), also known at battery acid, is the leading chemical manufactured in the United States, with an annual production of 40 million tons per year. Most of it is used in the manufacture of fertilizers, explosives, pigments, and dyes. It has the nasty attribute of being able to extract hydrogen and oxygen from organic substances, which can cause serious burns. It is strongly corrosive and, in both concentrated and weak solutions with water, will react with most metals. 

Finally, the SiCl4 is burned in a methane-oxygen flame. Si02 deposits as a fine ash, and chlorocarbon compounds escape as gaseous products. The Si02, with impurity levels reduced to parts per billion, can then be melted and drawn into the fine filaments required in fiber-optic cable. Tens of millions of kilometers of fiber-optic cable are currently produced annually in the United States. 

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