Frasch Process
The Frasch process is a drilling process used to recover deeply buried sulfur deposits. It was invented by Herman Frasch (1851-1914), a young chemical engineer from Germany. Frasch came to America to seek his fortune in 1868. The Civil War had just ended, and the American economy had begun to prosper. Shortly after his arrival, Frasch established an industrial laboratory in Philadelphia, and in 1876, he patented a process for making paraffin wax from crude petroleum. This won the attention of the Standard Oil Company, which hired Frasch to work at its Cleveland, Ohio laboratories. It was there that Frasch observed that oil from many wells could not be sold because it contained sulfur compounds. This "sour" oil burned poorly and emitted a strong odor even after it was refined. Frasch found a way to remove these impurities. In his method, which he patented in 1887, oil was distilled in the presence of copper oxide or other metallic oxides, which extract the sulfur. Afterwards, the spent oxide is recovered and reused. This process increased the United States' usable oil supply and helped set the stage for the introduction of the automobile.
Frasch's next breakthough involved his idea of idea of drilling for sulfur—the mineral used to make sulfuric acid, which today is industry's most important manufactured chemical.
Although sulfur is a solid material, Frasch believed that underground deposits could be melted and then pumped to the surface, much as oil is produced. At that time, the Mediterranean island of Sicily possessed a near-monopoly on world sulfur resources, where sulfur deposits were shallow and easy to mine. Additionally, Sicilian workers accepted lower wages and endured harsher conditions than would American miners. Texas and Louisiana contained vast amounts of sulfur, but it lay deep underground, covered by swamps and quicksand. In 1894 Frasch made his first attempt at drilling for sulfur in a Louisiana swamp. He adapted a method used previously for mining salt dissolved in water. To melt the sulfur, Frasch pumped water heated beyond its normal boiling point into the ground through a borehole. After overcoming many engineering problems, Frasch managed to extract a mixture of molten sulfur and water. Frasch then improved the process by using compressed air to pump the sulfur to the surface. Although much fuel was consumed to heat the water for melting sulfur, huge oil deposits were soon discovered near Frasch's first well. By 1902, the Frasch process for sulfur production had become completely practical, giving America its own supply of sulfur and sulfuric acid. This represented a major step toward making the United States less dependent of Europe for industrial chemicals. Today, the Frasch process is used to produce nearly one-third of all commercial sulfur.
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