Patent ID: 7052670

Claim:
An automatic method for the production of SO 2 from the combustion of elemental sulfur and pure oxygen, comprising the steps of: feeding liquid sulfur into an atomizer in a burner; atomizing the liquid sulfur in the burner together with return SO 2 and pure oxygen; and producing oxidative combustion of the liquid sulfur and the pure oxygen in a combustion chamber to produce SO 2 in the presence of the return SO 2 , wherein the return SO 2 is used as a cooling and diluting agent for the reactants taking part in the oxidative combustion in the combustion chamber, oxygen not consumed during the oxidative combustion is returned to the combustion chamber together with the return SO 2 to be reused, and the temperature of the oxidative combustion of the liquid sulfur does not exceed 1250° C., wherein the temperature is controlled by automatically controlling a defined ratio of S, O 2 and SO 2 , by measuring and controlling with respective flow sensors the flow of return oxygen, the flow of return SO 2 and O 2 , the flow of the pure oxygen and the flow of the liquid sulfur to the chamber.