Which acid used to be made by the lead chamber process but is now usually made by the contact process?
Lead chamber process Lead chamber process The lead chamber process was an industrial method used to produce sulfuric acid in large quantities. It has been largely supplanted by the contact process. In 1746 in Birmingham, England, John Roebuck began producing sulfuric acid in lead-lined chambers, which were stronger and less expensive, and could be made much larger, than the glass containers which had been used previously. This allowed the effective industrialization of sulfuric acid production and, with several refinements, this process remained the standard method of production for almost two centuries. So robust was the process that as late as 1946, the chamber
Lead chamber process oxides are sequestered in the reaction liquor as nitrosylsulfuric acid and as nitric acid, so fresh nitric oxide must be added as the process proceeds. Later versions of chamber plants included a high-temperature Glover tower to recover the nitrogen oxides from the chamber liquor, while concentrating the chamber acid to as much as 78% HSO. Exhaust gases from the chambers are scrubbed by passing into a tower through which some of the Glover acid flows over broken tile. Nitrogen oxides are absorbed to form nitrosylsulfuric acid, which is then returned to the Glover tower to reclaim the oxides of nitrogen.