Question

Sulfuric acid is essential to dozens of important industries from steelmaking to plastics and pharmaceuticals. More sulfuric acid is made than any other industrial chemical, and world production exceeds 2.0 x 10¹¹ per year. The first step in the synthesis of sulfuric acid is usually burning solid sulfur to make sulfur dioxide gas. Suppose an engineer studying this reaction introduces 2.8 kg of solid sulfur and 10.0 atm of oxygen gas at 450 C into an evacuated tank. The engineer believes Kp = 6.7 for the reaction at this temperature. Calculate the mass of solid sulfur he expects to be consumed when the reaction reaches equilibrium. Round your answer to 2 significant digits. Note for advanced students: the engineer may be mistaken in his belief about the value of K_p, and the consumption of sulfur you calculate may not be what he actually observes.

Answer 1