Re: What is the chemistry of using a bleach solution to scrub H2S ?

The short answer is that the bleach oxidizes sulfide (S^2- found in H₂S) to sulfate (SO₄^2-) which is water soluble and less toxic.

The balanced chemical equation for this reaction is:

4 OCl^- + H₂S ----> SO₄^2- + 2 H⁺ + 4 Cl^-

If you'd rather not see all the ions in that previous equation, just add 4 sodium ions to each side:

4 NaOCl + H₂S ----> H₂SO₄ + 4 NaCl