Sulfur (or sulphur in British English) is a chemical element with the symbol S and atomic number 16. It is abundant, multivalent and nonmetallic. Under normal conditions, sulfur atoms form cyclic octatomic molecules with a chemical formula S8. Elemental sulfur is a bright yellow, crystalline solid at room temperature.
Sulfuric acid or sulphuric acid, known in antiquity as oil of vitriol, is a mineral acid composed of the elements sulfur, oxygen, and hydrogen, with the molecular formula H2SO4. It is a colorless, odorless, and viscous liquid that is miscible with water.
A fumarole is a vent in the surface of the Earth or other rocky planet from which hot volcanic gases and vapors are emitted, without any accompanying liquids or solids. Fumaroles are characteristic of the late stages of volcanic activity, but fumarole activity can also precede a volcanic eruption and has been used for eruption prediction. Most fumaroles die down within a few days or weeks of the end of an eruption, but a few are persistent, lasting for decades or longer. An area containing fumaroles is known as a fumarole field.
Sulphur is a city in Calcasieu Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 21,809 in 2020. Sulphur is part of the Lake Charles metropolitan statistical area.
Port Sulphur is a census-designated place (CDP) on the West Bank of the Mississippi River in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana, United States; at the 2020 census, it had a population of 1,677.
Freeport-McMoRan Inc., often called Freeport, is an American mining company based in the Freeport-McMoRan Center, in Phoenix, Arizona. The company is the world's largest producer of molybdenum, is a major copper producer and operates the world's largest gold mine, the Grasberg mine in Papua, Indonesia.
Gold extraction is the extraction of gold from dilute ores using a combination of chemical processes. Gold mining produces about 3600 tons annually, and another 300 tons is produced from recycling.
The Perkin Medal is an award given annually by the Society of Chemical Industry to a scientist residing in America for an "innovation in applied chemistry resulting in outstanding commercial development." It is considered the highest honor given in the US chemical industry.
The Sulphur Bank Mine is located near Clearlake Oaks and Clear Lake in Lake County, California. The 150-acre (0.61 km2) mine became one of the most noted mercury producers in the world.
Herman Frasch [or Hermann Frasch] was a chemist, mining engineer and inventor known for his work with petroleum and sulfur.
Jürgen Gmehling is a retired German professor of technical and industrial chemistry at the Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg.
David Spence was one of the pioneering rubber chemists. He helped the war effort during the Second World War by devising new ways of extracting natural rubbers from plants, and worked to improve the processing of the rubber. Over the course of his career, he worked to improve the dyeing processes for rubber products and the vulcanization of rubber, and in developing new accelerants for strengthening lower-quality natural rubber. In 1941, he became the first recipient of the Charles Goodyear Medal, awarded by the American Chemical Society.
Flowers of sulfur is a very fine, bright yellow sulfur powder that is produced by sublimation and deposition. It can contain up to 30% of the amorphous allotrope of sulfur, which is the noncrystalline structure of sulfur. It is known as flores sulphuris by apothecaries and in older scientific works. Natural sulfur was also known as brimstone, hence the alternative name flowers of brimstone.
Sulfur production in the United States was 9.04 million metric tons of sulfur content in 2014, all of it recovered as a byproduct, from oil refineries, natural gas processing plants, and metal smelters. The United States was second in the world in sulfur production in 2014, behind China. The sulfur recovered was marketed in the forms of native (elemental) sulfur, and sulfuric acid. Total value was US$927 million in 2014.
The Union Sulphur Company was an American sulfur mining corporation founded in 1896 by the famous inventor Herman Frasch. It utilized the Frasch Process to extract previously inaccessible sulfur deposits located beneath swampland in Louisiana. The Union Sulphur Company dominated the world sulfur market until its patents expired in 1908. Its success led to the development of the present-day city of Sulphur, Louisiana. After its sulfur patents expired, the company transitioned into oil and natural gas production and was renamed the Union Sulphur & Oil Company and later the Union Oil & Gas Corporation.
The Texas Gulf Sulphur Company was one of the largest sulfur mining companies in the world from 1919 to 1981. By 1925 the company controlled 40% of the U.S. sulfur market. It was formed in 1909 and acquired in 1981, after expanding across the United States from Texas into Mexico, Canada, and Ethiopia.
Sulfur vulcanization is a chemical process for converting natural rubber or related polymers into materials of varying hardness, elasticity, and mechanical durability by heating them with sulfur or sulfur-containing compounds. Sulfur forms cross-linking bridges between sections of polymer chains which affects the mechanical and electronic properties. Many products are made with vulcanized rubber, including tires, shoe soles, hoses, and conveyor belts. The term vulcanization is derived from Vulcan, the Roman god of fire.
The Sicilian method was one of the first ways to extract sulfur from underground deposits. It was the only industrial method of recovering sulfur from elemental deposits until replaced by the Frasch process. Most of the world's sulfur was obtained this way until the late 19th century.
The Sulphur Crisis of 1840 was a conflict between the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies and the United Kingdom. In the 19th century, the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies maintained a large sulphur mining industry and was responsible for most of the world's production. In industrialising, British demand for sulphur increased considerably. The nation had a very favourable treaty with the Two Sicilies, negotiated in 1816. The Sulphur Crisis of 1840 occurred when King Ferdinand II gave a monopoly of the sulphur industry to a French firm. The British argued it violated the 1816 trade agreement. A peaceful solution was eventually negotiated by France.
