INDUSTRIAL PROCESSES

Industrial processes come up as tossups and, oftentimes, as bonus parts. Here are a few of the most commonly asked industrial processes with brief descriptions of each. (Study Guide by Mostafa Bhuiyan) Bayer Process: (1887, Karl Bayer) Most common way of producing alumina, the oxide of aluminum. The process involves refining (removing impurities from) bauxite, an ore of aluminum, by soaking the bauxite in sodium hydroxide (NaOH). This refined bauxite becomes alumina, which is later smelted into aluminum. It typically involves four stages: Digestion, clarification, precipitation, and calcination. Bessemer Process: (1855, Henry Bessemer and 1857, William Kelly) Became the first worldwide way of mass-producing steel, an alloy of iron. It involves highly compressed, hot air being blown through molten iron, after which the oxygen in the air reacts with the impurities (which can include sulfur and manganese) in the molten iron. This causes the impurities to burn out of the now purified metal. The air flows through small holes called tuyeres. Contact Process: (1831, Peregrine Phillips) The contact process is the industrial process used to produce sulfuric acid (H 2 SO 4 ). It replaced the now defunct lead-chamber process. In the past, the catalyst used in the contact process was platinum, but after it was discovered that the platinum could lead to poisoning, a transition was made to a vanadium oxide catalyst. Other products of the contact process include sulfur trioxide and oleum. Electrolysis: As its name suggests, the process involves making use of an electric current to decompose a chemical, whose parts form at both the anode and the cathode. One of the most common applications of electrolysis is on water; that process breaks down water into oxygen and hydrogen gas.
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 British chemist Sir Humphrey Davy made use of electrolysis to discover barium, calcium, potassium, and sodium. Haber Bosch Process: (1909, Fritz Haber) Industrial process that carries out nitrogen fixation via the reaction of nitrogen and hydrogen. Used to produce ammonia (NH 3 ) The ammonia is produced from the one nitrogen atom and the three hydrogen atoms by means of an iron catalyst. One of the most common uses of the Haber process is the production of fertilizer. Hall Hroult Process: (1886, Charles Martin Hall and Paul Hroult) The most common way of producing aluminum, unlike the Bayer process which produces alumina. It follows the Bayer process in the steps to produce aluminum. A typical procedure in the Hall-Hroult process is the use of a cryolite bath, in which alumina is dissolved. Afterwards, an electric current is sent through the mixture of cryolite and alumina. Kroll Process: (1940, William J. Kroll) Industrial process that is currently used to produce metallic titanium. It replaced the now defunct Hunter process. Titanium is produced from reducing titanium tetrachloride (TiCl 4 ) by using magnesium. The process makes use of fractional distillation to separate different substances. Ostwald Process: (1902, William Ostwald) Most common process used to product nitric acid (HNO 3 ). It replaced the now defunct Birdeland-Eyde Arc process. Oxidizes the ammonia produced from the Haber process by using a catalyst that contains the element rhodium. Aqua regia can be formed by using the Ostwald process because the aqua regia is comprised of nitric acid and hydrochloric acid. Siemens Process: (Siemens) Process that is used to purify silicon by reacting it with hydrochloric acid (HCl). The reaction between the HCL and the silicon creates Trichlorosilane (HCl 3 Si); at high temperatures, the trichlorosilane melts and yields silicon rods, which are in a purer form than the silicon the process started with.

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