hydrogen sulfide

noun

a colorless, flammable, water-soluble, cumulatively poisonous gas, H2S, having the odor of rotten eggs: used chiefly in the manufacture of chemicals, in metallurgy, and as a reagent in laboratory analysis.

Origin of hydrogen sulfide

First recorded in 1870–75

Also called sulfureted hydrogen.

Words Nearby hydrogen sulfide

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use hydrogen sulfide in a sentence

In May 2021, the EPA issued an emergency order under the Clean Air Act requiring the company to reduce hydrogen sulfide emissions and install air quality monitors on its fence line.
Our Shopping Obsession Is Causing a Literal Stink | Alana Semuels | December 15, 2021 | Time
The state was forced to continuously pipe a mixture of seawater, crude oil, and highly poisonous hydrogen sulfide gas from the leaking wells to Venoco’s onshore processing facility, which separates the components and incinerates the hydrogen sulfide.
Shutting Down Old Oil Rigs Is Harder—and More Expensive—Than it Sounds | Alejandro de la Garza | October 15, 2021 | Time
It’s made up of a mixture of methane, carbon dioxide and a little hydrogen sulfide and water vapor, all of which is produced by microbes that live on organic raw material within a airtight digester container.
We Could Power Our Homes With Food Scraps. Here’s What’s Stopping Us | Dr. Ananya Mukherjee | August 26, 2021 | Singularity Hub
Methane and hydrogen sulfide, both highly flammable and potentially explosive gases, are also constant hazards.
One city’s fight to solve its sewage problem with sensors | Andrew Zaleski | April 28, 2021 | MIT Technology Review
Vents in the rocks and ground were releasing more than 500 parts per million of hydrogen sulfide — levels that could cause humans to stagger and collapse within five minutes.
Oil Companies Are Profiting From Illegal Spills. And California Lets Them. | by Janet Wilson, The Desert Sun, and Lylla Younes, ProPublica | September 18, 2020 | ProPublica

Their hydrogen sulfide plant blew a crater in the ground a year ago.
13 Revelations From Reddit’s ‘Dirty Little Secret’ Thread Exposing Alleged Industry Secrets | Nina Strochlic | August 23, 2013 | THE DAILY BEAST
A man can live in a boiler factory or in a cubist art gallery, but he cannot live in a room containing hydrogen sulfide.
Creative Chemistry | Edwin E. Slosson
Or if hydrogen sulfide is mixed with the acetylene we may get thiophenes, which have sulfur in the ring.
Creative Chemistry | Edwin E. Slosson
But there are two gases that he always remembers, chlorine and hydrogen sulfide.
Creative Chemistry | Edwin E. Slosson
hydrogen sulfide was what gave the characteristic aroma to rotten eggs, and sulfur dioxide wasn't exactly perfume.
The Flaming Mountain | Harold Leland Goodwin
hydrogen sulfide (H2S), one of the typical gases issuing from fumaroles, readily oxidizes to sulfuric acid and native sulfur.
Volcanoes | Robert I. Tilling

Scientific definitions for hydrogen sulfide

hydrogen sulfide

A colorless, poisonous gas that smells like rotten eggs. It is formed naturally by decaying organic matter and is the smelly component of intestinal gas. It is also emitted by volcanoes and fumaroles. Hydrogen sulfide is used in the petroleum, rubber, and mining industries, and in making sulfur. Chemical formula: H2S.

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