Contact Process :

The process can be divided into four stage-:

Combining of sulfur and oxygen

Adding excess of oxygen to sulfur dioxide in presence of catalyst Vanadium Pentoxide

Sulfur Trioxide formed is added to sulfuric acid which give rise to oleum (disulfuric acid)

The oleum then is added to water to form sulfuric acid which is very concentrated

Purification of air and SO2 is necessary to avoid catalyst poisoning (i.e. removing
catalytic activities). The gas is then washed with water and dried by sulfuric acid.

To conserve energy, the mixture is heated by exhaust gases from the catalytic converter
by heat exchangers.

Sulfur dioxide and oxygen then react as follows:

2 SO2(g) + O2(g) ⇌ 2 SO3(g) : ΔH = −197 kJ mol−1

To increase the reaction rate, high temperatures (450 °C), medium pressures (1-2 atm),
and vanadium(V) oxide (V2O5) are used to ensure a 96% conversion. Platinum would
be a more effective catalyst, but it is very costly and easily poisoned.[citation needed]
The catalyst only serves to increase the rate of reaction as it has no effect on how much
SO3 is produced. The mechanism for the action of the catalyst is:

2SO2 + 4V5+ + 2O2- → 2SO3 + 4V4+

4V4+ + O2 → 4V5+ + 2O2-

Hot sulfur trioxide passes through the heat exchanger and is dissolved in concentrated
H2SO4 in the absorption tower to form oleum:

H2SO4(l) + SO3(g) → H2S2O7(l)

Note that directly dissolving SO3 in water is impractical due to the highly exothermic
nature of the reaction. Acidic vapor or mists are formed instead of a liquid.

Oleum is reacted with water to form concentrated H2SO4.