As well as being a strong acid, sulfuric acid is also a dehydrating agent, meaning it is very good at removing water from other substances. There are two examples you need to be aware of.

Sulfur is rarely found pure in the ground. It is an impurity which is removed from fossil fuels because it causes acid rain when fossil fuels are burned.

Maumene, on the above subject. The fatty oils mingled with sulphuric acid disengage heat, this action may serve to distinguish them; it separates in a striking manner the drying oils from those ...