Sulfur compounds contaminate many industrially important feedstocks and, on release to the atmosphere as sulfur oxides, can cause widespread damage to the ecosystem. The main objectives of The Sulfur Problem: Cleaning Up Industrial Feedstocks are to demonstrate the importance of eliminating sulfur contaminants from the environment and the measures necessary to effect this. Using a systematic and pedagogical approach, the reader is first presented with the problem. Current technology for solving it is then outlined together with appropriate theory on the synthesis, structure and sorption behaviour of the materials used. Relevant characterisation techniques are described with reference to typical sorbents, to demonstrate how the sorption behaviour of the materials correlates with their properties. The book is unique in blending together aspects of environmental chemistry, materials/solid state chemistry, surface chemistry, catalysis and separation processes to address the problem of sulfur contaminants in a wide range of feedstocks.

The Problems of Sulphur discusses all aspects of the problems associated with sulfur in coal. The book is divided into three parts. Part 1 addresses the forms of sulfur in coal and evaluates processes directed at the chemical removal of sulphur. Part 2 expands on this to look at alternative means of removing sulfur both physically and biologically, sulfur removal during the combustion of coal and flue gas desulfurization processes. Part 3 looks at the role of sulphates in the atmosphere from the points of view of their formation, transport and deposition and of their effects on health, materials and the atmosphere. The book will be of value to engineers, environmentalists, and chemists.

Sulfur, Energy, and Environment is a guide to the properties of sulfur; its three important compounds; and a review of the production, use, and recovery of sulfur in relation to energy production and environmental protection. After a brief introduction to the history of sulfur, the chemical properties of the element and some important compounds are reviewed, using common analytical methods. Sulfur is a strategic chemical in many modern applications and may make headway into high-volume non-chemical uses as it is being modified according to our changing technology and needs. The sources of sulfur and where it frequently occurs is explained. This discussion is followed by citing reviews of the four most important cycles, that is, the global sulfur cycle, hydrosphere, atmospheric sulfur budget, and the anthropogenic sulfur cycle. Sulfur production methods, coal combustion chemistry, and flue gas desulfurization are then described. The many uses of sulfur are described, including in medicine, agriculture, chemical industry, and the plastic industry. However, throughout the production of sulfur, problems affecting the environment occur, so environmental control and legislation are also discussed. Finally, the trends of sulfur research, production, use and recovery, role of chemistry, and the future overall area where science, energy, chemistry, and the environment exist together are presented. Chemists and chemistry students, industrialists, and environmental planners will find this guide to sulfur helpful. Lecturers in chemistry and researchers in the many fields of application of sulfur will likewise benefit from it.

This book is the eighth volume in the series Acute Exposure Guideline Levels for Selected Airborne Chemicals, and reviews AEGLs for acrolein, carbon monoxide, 1,2-dichloroethene, ethylenimine, fluorine, hydrazine, peracetic acid, propylenimine, and sulfur dioxide for scientific accuracy, completeness, and consistency with the NRC guideline reports.

When people go looking for hell, they go underground. Dante, Aeneas, and Odysseus all journeyed beneath the earth to find the underworld, a place where the dead are tortured according to their sins. Buffy the Vampire Slayer had to deal with a huge underground pit infested with demons below her high school called the Hellmouth. And when Homer Simpson ate the forbidden donut for which he’d sold his soul to the devil, he was sucked through a fiery hole in the ground. Though humans actually haven’t gone more than 7.5 miles into the earth, we associate this mysterious underground realm with darkness and death, and the depths of the earth’s interior remain an inspiration for writers and artists trying to imagine hell. Why Hell Stinks of Sulfur uses subterranean mythology as a point of departure to explore the vast world that lies beneath our feet. Geologist Salomon Kroonenberg takes us on an expedition that begins in Dante’s Inferno and continues through Virgil, Da Vinci, Descartes, and Jules Verne. He investigates the nine circles of hell, searches a lake near Naples for the gates of hell used by Aeneas, and turns a scientific spotlight on the many myths of the underworld. He uncovers the layers of the earth’s interior one by one, describing the variety of gasses, ores, liquids, and metals that add to the immense variety of color that can be found below us. Kroonenberg views the inside of the earth as a living ecosystem whose riches we are only beginning to discover, and he warns against our thirst for natural resources exhausting the earth. From the underground rivers and lakes that have never seen the light of day to the story of Saint Barbara—the patron saint of mineworkers—Kroonenberg’s pursuit of the geological foundations of hell is a fascinating journey to the center of the earth.