Chemical Nitric acid from air and water:

[qst42know]

The jungle with no nitric, no sulfuric, no nitrates, likely low on electricity as well, kinda hard to get anything done I would think.

Will they allow pants or do you have to bring a gourd to wear or loin cloth? :mrgreen:

 

[HAuCl4]

Doing a little reading I found out that the main driver for the development for the Platinum group metals research by Gilchrist and many others was the need to generate nitric acid for the industrial manufacture of fertilizers in a large scale, after the first world war.

Reading more, I doubt that the processes can be adapted to small scale. It includes making ammonia first, and then oxidizing the ammonia. Both processes conducted at high pressure and with catalysts.

 

[NoIdea]

Depends on what is in the air that you use, CO2 may produce carbon based compounds, N2 may produce nitrogen type compounds, and so on. Not just a straight forward air + spark = acid. Natural nitric acid is produced via. lighting and nitrogen.

Deano

 

[butcher]

Air is mostly nitrogen so a spark or thousand of tiny sparks can make a tiny bit of NO2 and if mixed in moiture or bubbled in water will form nitric acid, but the volume of NO2 produced would be very small, it would take a very large unit maybe made with thousands and thousands of small needles all sparking with air flow through them, a low current high voltage spark generator to get just a little bit of nitric acid, not practical in my opinion, nitrates and acid for homemade are the easiest for smalll scale production.

 

[Sonofman]

honestly not a bad idea(at least for the nitrate). black powder can be up to 75% potassium nitrate.boil in water and filter. dry filtrate to a crystal and voila, potassium nitrate. blasting powder and smokeless gun powder is about 70%.

all you need is a source for sulfuric acid. is there a restriction on auto battery electrolyte?

Couldn't you make nitric without the sulfuric?

 

[Yggdrasil]

Couldn't you make nitric without the sulfuric?

I think you can distill off the Nitrate.
That is quite a bit more involved, and more dangerous.

 

[GoIdman]

Are there any plans of small plants to make nitric acid in a very small scale, first making ammonia, and then oxidizing the ammonia?. I know I'll need some Pt black as catalyst. This is for a small 5 gallon per day use in the middle of a jungle.

Hi,

I have produced for experiment sulfuric acid by mixing SO2 solution bought from vine supply store and 3% peroxide from pharmacy.....mixing it will result in an approx. 10% (didn't concentrate it, it was just a small experiment, since sulfuric is banned in my country) sulfuric with exothermic reaction which you can then concentrate with boiling.....

If you need large quantities, i don't know....in the middle of the jungle....quite hard i believe.

It is a possibility though.

Pete

 

[Yggdrasil]

Hi,

I have produced for experiment sulfuric acid by mixing SO2 solution bought from vine supply store and 3% peroxide from pharmacy.....mixing it will result in an approx. 10% (didn't concentrate it, it was just a small experiment, since sulfuric is banned in my country) sulfuric with exothermic reaction which you can then concentrate with boiling.....

If you need large quantities, i don't know....in the middle of the jungle....quite hard i believe.

It is a possibility though.

Pete

Sulfuric made like this will be very weak.
Can you buy battery acid?

 

[GoIdman]

Sulfuric made like this will be very weak.
Can you buy battery acid?

Yes it was weak and basically if its around 10 percent, you'll get 100ml from 1l of solution....not viable for long term nor economical, but if everything else fails, it is a possibility to make sulfuric this way.....not who knows what large quantity, but at least to produce some nitric is OK.

If I would choose, I would also go for the battery acid and concentrate it, that is at least 36-37% from the start..

Pete