Simply because sulfur is found naturally within the Earth's soil it therefore can also be found naturally in plants and animals. Sulfur within the soil, usually in the form of sulfate, is taken up and merged by plants. The sulfate (SO42-) is first taken up by the plant's roots, then via a series of enzymatic processes the plant reduces it to sulfite (SO32-), then to sulfide (S2-) and finally the sulfur is incorporated into an organic sulfur compound. These natural sulfur compounds are usually proteins consisting of the sulfur proteins - cysteine, and methionine. Animals or livestock acquire In the atmosphere, sulfur can be found as part of a variety of Sulfur Suppliers compounds (i. e. sulfur dioxide, hydrogen sulfide) that originate from natural processes. Hot comes and steam vents, for USA sulfur example those in Yellowstone National Park are examples wherever emissions of sulfur compounds are found. Other examples are volcanic vapors and ocean spray which play an important role. Even microscopic bacteria and phytoplankton (ocean waters) get into the act through releasing sulfur compounds such as dimethyl sulfide (C2H6S) into the atmosphere.
Man-Made Sources of Sulfur
Sulfur is one of the few elements that occur naturally as a "pure element" (other good examples - gold, copper as well as carbon). However , as mentioned most of the Earth's sulfur is found tangled up or bound to other elements. One example is metal pépite containing sulfur which are referred to as sulfides and sulfates.
During these situations mining may take spot to recover not only the sulfur, but more importantly the valuable metals. Metal ores tend to be minerals or an combination of minerals from which a valuable constituent, usually a metal, can be profitably mined or extracted (i. e. pyrite - iron sulfide). In the process of removing the valuable metal, sulfur is also eliminated. This removal process happens in processing plants known as smelters. sulfur by simply ingesting plants.
Sulfur is also found tied up in coal, petroleum and natural gas. These raw materials are valuable fuels with regard to powering and supplying power to a country's infrastructure. The burning up of these substances takes place to both the an individual level (cars, mowers, oil furnaces, etc . ) and an industrial level (power plants, refineries, smelters, etc . ) which each result in the poisonous gas sulfur dioxide (SO2) being released in to the atmosphere. To reduce sulfur dioxide emissions a chemical process has been developed to remove sulfur from petroleum and natural gas. This process called the Claus procedure uses a technique called hydrodesulfuization (HDS).
HDS involves catalytic treatment (increases chemical rate) with hydrogen to convert the various sulfur compounds present to hydrogen sulfide. The hydrogen sulfide is then separated and transformed into elemental sulfur. So much elemental sulfur is removed during this process that about 4, 000, 000 tons of sulfur are recovered in the U. S. each year from gas, petroleum refinery gases as well as smelter gases.