The Deacon process, invented by
Henry Deacon, is a process used during the
manufacture
Manufacturing is the creation or production of goods with the help of equipment, labor, machines, tools, and chemical or biological processing or formulation. It is the essence of secondary sector of the economy. The term may refer to a ra ...
of
alkali
In chemistry, an alkali (; from ar, القلوي, al-qaly, lit=ashes of the saltwort) is a basic, ionic salt of an alkali metal or an alkaline earth metal. An alkali can also be defined as a base that dissolves in water. A solution of ...
s (the initial end product was
sodium carbonate) by the
Leblanc process
The Leblanc process (pronounced leh-blaank) was an early industrial process for making ''soda ash'' ( sodium carbonate) used throughout the 19th century, named after its inventor, Nicolas Leblanc. It involved two stages: making sodium sulfate f ...
.
Hydrogen chloride
The compound hydrogen chloride has the chemical formula and as such is a hydrogen halide. At room temperature, it is a colourless gas, which forms white fumes of hydrochloric acid upon contact with atmospheric water vapor. Hydrogen chloride g ...
gas was converted to
chlorine
Chlorine is a chemical element with the symbol Cl and atomic number 17. The second-lightest of the halogens, it appears between fluorine and bromine in the periodic table and its properties are mostly intermediate between them. Chlorine is ...
gas, which was then used to manufacture a commercially valuable
bleaching powder
Bleach is the generic name for any chemical product that is used industrially or domestically to remove color (whitening) from a fabric or fiber or to clean or to remove stains in a process called bleaching. It often refers specifically, to ...
, and at the same time the emission of waste
hydrochloric acid
Hydrochloric acid, also known as muriatic acid, is an aqueous solution of hydrogen chloride. It is a colorless solution with a distinctive pungent smell. It is classified as a strong acid. It is a component of the gastric acid in the dig ...
was curtailed. To some extent this technically sophisticated process superseded the earlier
manganese dioxide
Manganese dioxide is the inorganic compound with the formula . This blackish or brown solid occurs naturally as the mineral pyrolusite, which is the main ore of manganese and a component of manganese nodules. The principal use for is for dry-cel ...
process.
[
]
Process
The process was based on the oxidation of hydrogen chloride:
:4 HCl + O2 → 2 Cl2 + 2H2O
The reaction takes place at about 400 to 450 °C in the presence of a variety of catalysts, including copper chloride Copper chloride may refer to:
* Copper(I) chloride (cuprous chloride), CuCl, mineral name nantokite
* Copper(II) chloride (cupric chloride), CuCl2, mineral name eriochalcite
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