 | |
| Process type | Extraction |
|---|---|
| Industrial sector(s) | Mining |
| Main technologies or sub-processes | Melting |
| Product(s) | Sulfur |
| Year of invention | Ancient |
The Sicilian method was one of the first ways to extract sulfur from underground deposits. It was the only industrial method of recovering sulfur from elemental deposits until replaced by the Frasch process.[1] Most of the world's sulfur was obtained this way until the late 19th century.[2]
In its most basic form the ores were piled in a mound and ignited. The semi-pure sulfur flowed down and the solidified mass was collected at a lower level. It gets its name from the center of sulfur production until the 19th century when it was replaced by the Frasch process.[3][4]
- ^ Alden P. Armagnac (December 1942). "Strange mines tap sulphur". Popular Science. Popular Science Publishing Co. Archived from the original on 17 April 2016. Retrieved 4 February 2019.
- ^ Stuart Bruchey (1960). "Brimstone, The Stone That Burns: The Story of the Frasch Sulphur Industry by Williams Haynes". Journal of Economic History. 20 (2): 326–327. JSTOR 2114864. It was a simple but not environmentally sound process.Walter Botsch (2001). "Chemiker, Techniker, Unternehmer: Zum 150. Geburtstag von Hermann Frasch". Chemie in unserer Zeit. 35 (5): 324–331. doi:10.1002/1521-3781(200110)35:5<324::AID-CIUZ324>3.0.CO;2-9.
- ^ "Learn More About Sulphur - Introduction". The Sulphur Institute. Archived from the original on 7 February 2019. Retrieved 5 February 2019.
- ^ Gray, C.W. (1920). Fundamentals of Chemistry. p. 76.