Leaching iron from the electric arc furnace dust by using sulfuric acid to prepare iron oxide sorbent for H2S removal was studied in this paper. The influences of sulfuric acid concentration, reaction temperature and the dosage of hydrochloric acid on the iron leaching yield were investigated in the leaching process. The iron oxide sorbent was prepared by the filtrate from the leaching process. The experimental results show that the iron species in the dust were transferred into γ‐Fe2O3 · H2O crystal of higher activity for H2S removal in the sorbent. The desulfurization test revealed that the breakthrough sulfur capacity of the sorbent is similar to that of the commercial active carbon on the same test conditions. © 2014 Curtin University of Technology and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.