7/30/2019 ACE Industrial Processes
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2011, Academic Competition Enterprises
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INDUSTRIAL
PROCESSESIndustrial 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, andcalcination.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 airreacts 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 calledtuyeres.Contact Process:
(1831, Peregrine Phillips)
The contact process is the industrial process used to produce
sulfuric acid (H2SO4 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.
). It
replaced the now defunct lead-chamber process.
Other products of the contact process include sulfur trioxide
andoleum.Electrolysis:
As its name suggests, the process involves making use of an
electric current todecompose 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 breaksdown water into oxygen and hydrogen gas.
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2011, Academic Competition Enterprises
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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 ofnitrogen andhydrogen. Used to produce ammonia (NH3
The ammonia is produced from the one nitrogen atom and the three
hydrogen atoms bymeans of an iron catalyst.)
One of the most common uses of the Haber process is the
production offertilizer.Hall Hroult Process: (1886, Charles Martin
Hall and Paul Hroult)
The most common way of producing aluminum, unlike the Bayer
process whichproduces 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 whichalumina 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 nowdefunct Hunter process.
Titanium is produced from reducing titanium tetrachloride
(TiCl4
) by using
magnesium. The process makes use offractional distillation to
separate different
substances.
Ostwald Process: (1902, William Ostwald)
Most common process used to product nitric acid (HNO3 Oxidizes
the ammonia produced from the Haber process by using a catalyst
that
contains the element rhodium.
). It replaced the now defunctBirdeland-Eyde Arc process.
Aqua regia can be formed by using the Ostwald process because
the aqua regia iscomprised 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 (HCl3
Si); at hightemperatures, the trichlorosilane melts and yields
silicon rods, which are in a purer form
than the silicon the process started with.
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