Contact process Essay

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Write a report on Economic significance of Catalyst in Contact and Haber process Contact process: - Contact process is the process used to manufacture Sulphuric acid. Vanadium oxide is used as catalyst to produce sulphur trioxide which is later used in manufacture of Sulphuric acid. Process takes place during Contact process: - In presence of Catalyst Vanadium oxide SO2 is changed to SO3. Then with SO3 Sulphuric acid is manufactured. This can't be done by simply adding water to the Sulphur trioxide - the reaction is so uncontrollable that it creates a fog of Sulphuric acid. Instead, the Sulphur trioxide is first dissolved in concentrated Sulphuric acid: The product is known as fuming Sulphuric acid or oleum. This can then be reacted safely with water to produce concentrated Sulphuric acid - twice as much as you originally used to make the fuming Sulphuric acid. The catalyst has no affect whatsoever on the position of the equilibrium. Adding a catalyst doesn't produce any greater percentage of Sulphur trioxide in the equilibrium mixture. Its only function is to speed up the reaction. . Haber process: - This process is used in manufacture of Ammonia at industry level. In presence of Iron (Fe) the following reaction takes place to yield Ammonia. Other conditions like 400 Celsius temperature and 200 atm pressure is also necessary. What happens in absence of Catalyst? In the absence of a catalyst the reaction is so slow that virtually no reaction happens in any sensible time. The catalyst ensures that the reaction is fast enough for a dynamic equilibrium to be set up within the very short time that the gases are actually in the reactor. After having a look at the whole situation, we find the catalyst has a major role in product yielding. In the situation where catalyst is not present then we cannot

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