Sulfate may be rapidly and easily titrated thermometrically using standard solutions of Ba as titrant. Industrially, the procedure has been applied to the determination of sulfate in brine (including electrolysis brines), in nickel refining solutions and particularly for sulfate in wet process phosphoric acid, where it has proven to be quite popular. The procedure can also be used to assist in the analysis of complex acid mixtures containing sulfuric acid where resorting to titration in non-aqueous media is not feasible.
The reaction enthalpy for the formation of barium sulfate is a modest −18.8 kJ/mol. This can place a restriction on the lower limit of sulfate in a sample which can be analyzed.