'''Organosulfur Compounds''' are
organic compounds containing
sulfur. One of many compounds, ususally of distastefull odor, created naturally during the decay of growing organisms containing
carbohydrate chains and compounds of sulfur (Brittish useage: Sulphur). Both carbohydrates and sulfur are chemically active, and such compounds form readily during decay processes of living matter. (See
Natural Gas)
Some few organosulfur compounds in the environment, particularly the air, are created as rare by-products of chemical plant production processes wherein sulfer is used as one
reagent in the processes such as those making plastics or tires. But most sulfurous effluents (pollutants) occur from use of
fossil fuels as part of the process feedstock, or when used as it's fuel as in power generation. All objectionable smell producing processes, in the strictest sense, are generators of pollutants, and in general, organsulfur compunds are the most noticable of these, such as in the notorious oder given off by the coking of coal, which process is specifically designed to drive out sulferous compounds and other volitile impurities in order to produce
clean carbon (
Coke), which is primarily used for steel production. Similar odors occur as well in chemical processing of
coal or crude oil into precursor chemicals (feedstocks) for downstream industrial uses (e.g. plastics or pharmaceutical production) and the ubiquitous needs of petroleum distillation for (
gasolines, deisel, and other grades of fuel oils production. (Plural intended — there are several grades of each category, and including even seasonal blends of gasolines)
Organosulfur compounds might best be understood as smelly contaminants that produce the objectionable smells that, in general, need removed from natural gas before commercial uses, from exhaust stacks and exhaust vents before discharge. In this latter context, Organosulfur compounds may be said to account for tithe pollutants in sulfurous
acid rain, or equivilently, said to be pollutants within most common fossil fuels, especially
coal.
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Chemistry
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Organic-Chemistry
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Chemical-Compound