This review article deals with the development of sulfur recovery from the Claus process to H2S selective oxidation. Governments are constantly tightening regulations to limit the emission of sulfur compounds into the air. This makes it necessary to constantly enhance the level of sulfur recovery from natural, refinery, or coal gasification gases, and many improvements in the Claus process have been introduced to this end. In this review, emphasis has been put on the mechanism of reactions occurring in most of the sulfur recovery units, reactions between H2S and SO2 or O-2 and side reactions such as hydrolysis of COS and CS2 or sulfation of the catalyst.