Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Agricultural Sulphur

lvjrf - 13-12-2004 at 00:45

Hi all

Q1

What is the differnce between Agricultural Sulphur and Normal sulphur ?

Q2

How Control between the two equations

Sodium Sulphide
4S+4NaOH ----->2Na2S + Na2S2O3+2H2O

S + NaOh ----> Sodium polysulphide + H2O

Thanks

cyclonite4 - 13-12-2004 at 04:45

Q1

Normal sulfur is just, normal sulfur. :D
As for agricultural, it would be either high purity sulfur (flowers of sulfur, like you buy at gardening stores), or something similar to 'rose dust', which has additives mixed with it, although i don't know for what purpose (besides being specific to roses).

Just look for 'flowers of sulfur' or 'elemental sulfur' both are about 99.9% pure, which is generally good enough.

Thanks cyclonite4

lvjrf - 13-12-2004 at 06:12

Thanks cyclonite4

and what about Q2

Thanks

Yeah, about that :)

cyclonite4 - 13-12-2004 at 06:36

Well I'd like to help, but im gonna admit now, I havent really explored much into the second of those 2 reactions, but i'm sure there is a way of controlling them :D

JohnWW - 13-12-2004 at 13:29

"Agricultural" grade sulfur would be "technical" grade sulfur, produced with a minimum of purification steps, if any, after being either mined from volcanic fumaroles, or extracted from deep deposits in sedimentary rocks (as in Texas) through drillholes by the Frasch process in which it is melted with superheated steam and pumped out. It would either be applied as the element in S-deficient areas, or burned to produced SO2 then catalytically converted to SO3 to produce sulfuric acid for chemical manufacturing especially of "superphosphate" fertilizer. The most likely impurity would be Se, but this is not a problem for agricultural use because S-deficient soils are usually also Se-deficient.

Analytical and reagent and medicinal grade sulfur, used e.g. for making thiosulfate and to treat certain fungal and other medical conditions, would have undergone at least one further purification step, most likely by sublimation (to produce "flowers of sulfur";), although dissolution in CS2 is another possibility.

lvjrf - 13-12-2004 at 23:59

thanks JohnWW

thanks for all

true_alchemy - 16-12-2004 at 18:31

The main difference in agricultural sulfur is that it contains calcium hydroxide or calcium carbonate to keep it from clumping and for better dispersion on the garden.

cyclonite4 - 17-12-2004 at 03:19

Would "Elemental sulfur" (99.9% apparently) contain any Ca(OH)2/CaCO3??

I would hope that it doesnt, and am convinved by the 99.9% elemental sulfur garuantee.

neutrino - 17-12-2004 at 10:16

Depending on the brand, it shouldn't. Google the brand and see what you find. Alternately, request an MSDS from the company. These should always say what's in the product.

cyclonite4 - 18-12-2004 at 05:25

Funnily enough, i cant find an MSDS for it.

Just to be sure, I'm going to saturate it with water, filter the sulfur back out, and test the water remaining for Calcium ions.