Gases produced by reacting fuels with oxygen containing gases and water vapor under pressure are desulfurized by scrubbing with a concentrated solution of one or more alkali salts of weak inorganic acids at a temperature near the atmospheric-pressure boiling point of the solution in a column while maintaining an exchange ratio of from 0.2 to 2.0 cubic meters of the concentrated solution per standard cubic meter hydrogen sulfide in the gas to be purified.