Frasch process

Frasch process (fräsh) [for Herman Frasch, the German-American chemist who devised it], process for the extraction of sulfur from subsurface deposits. Three pipes, one inside another, are sunk to the bottom of the sulfur bed. Water heated under pressure to a temperature well above the melting point of the sulfur is conducted down the outer pipe, and air under pressure down through the innermost pipe. The heated water melts the sulfur and the compressed air forces it through the middle pipe to the surface.

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Frasch process [′fräsh ‚präs·əs]

(mining engineering)

A process to remove sulfur from sulfur beds; superheated water is forced under pressure into the sulfur bed, and the molten sulfur is thus forced to the surface.