Abstract: A process for recovering sulfur from sour gas, and providing valuable byproducts, the sour gas consisting principally of hydrogen sulfide and carbon dioxide, and the process consisting of the steps of combusting a portion of the hydrogen sulfide with pure oxygen to produce a mixture of H.sub.2 S and SO.sub.2, reacting the mixture successively over a series of catalytic converter beds wherein they react to produce water and elemental sulfur, the elemental sulfur being condensed after each converter, and the gaseous output of each converter being repressurized and reheated before entering the next successive converter to improve the yield of sulfur therein, combusting the gaseous output of the final converter of the series with pure oxygen in a final catalytic converter to convert any remaining H.sub.2 S to SO.sub.2, and treating the H.sub.2 O, SO.sub.2 and CO.sub.2 mixture emerging from said converter to remove therefrom the water and CO.sub.2, which are in themselves valuable byproducts and recycling the SO.

Abstract: A method of firing coal-powered boilers to produce both heat to operate the boiler at its full rated capacity, and also to produce a usable fuel gas generally equal in heat content to the heat consumed in the boiler to produce steam, said method consisting of burning pulverized coal in the presence of varying proportions of steam and oxygen. The boiler is over-fired with coal, but with an undersupply of oxygen, in order that the total available heat content of the coal is divided between heat released by the incomplete combustion thereof, which may be sufficient to operate the boiler at full steam capacity, and heat content contained in combustible flue gases, which may be utilized for many different purposes.