Sulfuric acid is probably the most important industrial chemical because it is used in so many industrial processes to produce or purify other chemicals. It can be produced by a three step process. First, sulfur is burned in air to give sulfur dioxide. Second, the sulfur dioxide is converted to sulfur trioxide by passing the sulfur dioxide over a catalyst in the presence of oxygen at a high temperature. Third, the sulfur trioxide is reacted with water to produce sulfuric acid. If the three steps gave yields as listed below and you start with 1.00 x 103 kg of sulfur (assume other reagents are in excess), how much sulfuric acid can be produced? S + O2 ⟶ SO2 92.5%
2SO2 + O2 ⟶ 2SO3 72.6%
SO3 + H2O ⟶ H2SO4 98.2%
a. 2020 kg
b. 4030 kg
c. 2840 kg
d. 3060 kg
e. 2220 kg