Acids

Sulphuric acid production

Sulphur is widely used in industrial and fertilizer complexes. Sulphuric acid production is the major end use for sulphur and sulphuric acid has been regarded as one of the best indexes of a nation's industrial development (Ober, 1996). USA is the largest producer and consumer of sulphur and sulhpuric acid in the world. Byproduct sulphuric acid at copper, lead, molybdenum, and zinc roasters and smelters amounted in 1995 to 12% of the total domestic production in all forms in the USA. The seven largest acid plants (all at copper mines) accounted for 85% of the output. The five largest producers of byproduct sulphuric aicd were all copper producers (Ober, 1996). Historical production emerged in some regions already in 1900 (Mitchell, 1993-1998). 

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Nitric acid production

Nitric acid is used directly for myriad uses, including salt formation reactions to produce metal nitrates, and in metal degeasing, treating and pickling for the graphic and galvanic industries. The nitric acid production data are used for N2O emission calculations. Production emerged in some regions since 1930 (Mitchell, 1993-1998). Note that data for Europe and CIS are left blank; in the historical tables of Mitchell (1998), nitric acid production in Europe and CIS is not presented. 

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