A stirred-glass autoclave containing liquid sulfur and solid iron oxide catalyst was used to study low-tonnage sulfur recovery from H2S-containing gas streams. The objectives were to test the feasibility of using both liquid sulfur as a reaction medium and iron oxide as a direct oxidation catalyst for prolonged H2S conversion. Using a 1.60% H2S and 0.80% 02 (balance N-2) feed gas, fresh iron oxide acted primarily as a scavenger for bulk H2S removal from the inlet gas stream. Following the scavenging phase, the steady-state iron oxide/sulfide was able to maintain low catalytic activity (30% conversion). The steady-state catalyst did, however, have a strong ability to generate significant amounts of SO2 in the presence of inlet feed O-2. Data showed that this SO2 production resulted from the oxidation of the liquid sulfur over the steady-state iron oxide/sulfide. The rate of SO2 formation was shown to be directly proportional to the concentration of O-2 in the inlet feed gas. Although H2S conversions over steady-state iron oxide/sulfide ended up being lower than expected, the ability to strictly control the amount Of SO2 generated from the system was advantageous. By incorporating gamma-Al2O3 into a liquid sulfur reactor containing steady-state iron oxide/sulfide, the dual-catalyst system achieved 97% conversion of the H2S to elemental sulfur.