We have 35 tons of R717 (refrig-grade NH3) and it is no joke if you have a release. In our HAZWOPER training, they showed us films of them spraying it into an open flame. It has to be JUST the right concentration to burn. It is an excellent refrigerant. You can stick a dollar bill in the stuff and it will shrink the bill.
***** too bad we don't use more of those systems.. those legacy technologies were the best. your videos are also a favorite of mine, many thanks. keep up the good work guys.
It makes me happy America will never adopt Celsius. When I graduated high school, we were given an equation to convert BARBARIAN units to civilized ones. Celsius was then immediately left behind for Kelvin and Fahrenheit.
Very cool! The color change from blue to metallic is associated with a phase transition from an electrolytic solution, as you suggested, composed of Li+ and solvated electrons, to a metallic phase, which is lusterous and has a marked increase in conductivity (on the order of mercury metal).
My hat is off to you sir. There are so many experiments that I have done or want to do but this is not even nearly on my bucket list because I just don't want to die that way.
Long time ago as a kid (30 years ago) I seen a man get frozen by a leak of anhydrous ammonia. It came out of the tanks we were dragging behind the tillers to fertilize the soil. The line broke and there was a large cloud, he ran in to shut it off and didn't make it. The emergency shut offs kicked in and we run down to him, he was blue. If it wasn't for my boss Hans taking the chewing tobacco out of his mouth and giving him mouth to mouth he would be dead. Got to love our food system.
Looking at the ammonia charts on engineer toolbox, if you sent the ammonia gas directly to the pressure tank (obviously not using the glass, but replacing with SS or aluminum tubing), you could liquify with ice water bath around 75psi. Might be a better way to go for us simple folk without cryogenic coolers. Also the water would condense quicker at the higher pressure. See any problems with this plan that I may be overlooking? This would be great for Einstein refrigerator, solar absorption refrigerator, etc. Hydrogen is a lot easier to get, especially when u already have the lye. A few aluminum cans and you're on your way! I can't say enough about this great TH-cam channel!
Sigmatechnica I should have bought two, and torn one apart for inspection. Do you have any docs that describe propane cylinder construction? Maybe I can find a brand that is welded.
Applied Science I don't have any docs, however I ripped apart an identical looking cylinder that had held MAPP gas, and distinctly recall both the middle seam and the valves being brazed in place...
Great videos! Just a couple of suggestions. If you use dry ice, you won't have to worry about the ammonia freezing. Also, give your condensation chamber an exit tube, and lead it to an inverted funnel sitting just below the surface of water. It will absorb any excess ammonia and the funnel prevents any suck back. Then you won't have to worry about priming the chamber with ammonia, and you won't have any (or very little) ammonia escaping. I can explain better if you want.
I've always found your videos interesting but as a chemistry undergrad this video was especially interesting! Very familar glassware setup used in a way I have not done. Hope to see more videos like this :D
I really don't want to be a wise guy, but dissolving Sodium/Lithium in liquid Ammonia is not called Birch Reduction. It's a reaction in organic chemistry which reduces Aromates to the corresponding (1,4)-Dienes. Of course it uses the solvated electrons generated by Sodium in Liquid Ammonia, but the reaction of the solvated electrons with the Aromate ( e.g. Benzene) is called Birch Reduction and not the Reaction of Sodium/Lithium with Ammonia. Just to be technically correct ;) Anyway, I LOVE your Videos ! :)
Timo Schramm I caught this same slip, but couldn’t have put it so well with any confidence. Bravo. I don’t think this sort of correction is wise guyery. Perhaps his slip was related to whatever he plans on doing with this stuff.
I was in the engine room of a food factory when techs were swapping out oil in a compressor. Just them pouring it into the waste oil barrel was enough to trigger a cough.
@@Miata822 just before it kills you? What do you mean? Because I'm a RITA certified operator, and have been in some fairly dangerous scenarios. Such as walking into an engine room with liquid NH3 leaking out of a high pressure liquid line. So reading up on it has its limitations. Trained professionals have book knowledge, and experience. The thing about NH3 is it fills the air making it obvious there's a leak which is actually a benefit. Manmade refrigerants are nowhere near as obvious (which is a great point @pirate69s made BTW), making it much more likely to harm you severely. However NH3 is not like carbon monoxide. Like @pirate69s stated, it tells you (meaning lets you know it's presence, and makes you wanna run away) before it kills you. But in order for it to kill you, you'd have to inhale some pretty high concentrations of it. This is quite hard to do being your respiratory muscles contract tremendously upon inhalation. The odor it puts off when concentration levels are higher stings you nostrils making you cry, followed by a natural instinct forcing you to stop inhaling. It could kill you if you don't leave the area *AND* continue to inhale the "gasses". But that's hard to do. It gives off an odor that makes you run away. It causes you to cough if inhaled into your lungs. And even may cause respiratory damage if high concentrations of it is inhaled, or prolonged exposure to NH3 gases. It puts off a cloud when it's in very high concentrations. Anyone seeing it will run away if they know it's an NH3 cloud. If they don't know it's an NH3 cloud (or are ignorant of its effects) and inhale the cloud, they will likely suffer respiratory damage, and will have to be treated at a hospital if they're able to run away to fresh air. It's very difficult to breath twice in high concentrations. Because your body has natural defense mechanisms that stops you from inhaling it. @ScotchFox made mention of the strong odor that it puts off when compressor oil is disposed of (meaning NH3 was trapped in the oil, releasing gasses when poured). This is moderate exposure to NH3 gases, but didn't kill him. Point I'm trying to drive in here is your comment doesn't seem to make much sense when placed in context of what both of these fellas said. Normally people that fear monger on NH3, has not much of any clue as to the true dangers involved in handling NH3, so they just say it's some really dangerous stuff, so do your research. But like I said, it's not like it's carbon monoxide. It's an excellent refrigerant. It's a shame it's not used as much anymore, because it's an extremely efficient refrigerant to use. And isn't nowhere near as bad for the environment as many man made refrigerant are.
@@Miata822 you should probably look up actual anhydrous ammonia studies, it’s not going to immediately kill you unless it’s well over 10,000 ppm. Your comment acts like a few inhales of it and your dead 😂😂 no
@@mcore1435 I was posting about the physical hazards, not toxicity. Ammonia refrigerant systems contain large volumes of pure liquid ammonia. Typically used in large fully enclosed deep freeze rooms concentrations from a leak can quickly reach lethal levels but the chemical burns to your tissues, especially lungs, will kill you long before the toxicity does if exposed to pure vaporizing liquid.
Hey Ben! Fun video as always! If you want a nice full-face respirator I recommend the North 5400 series, I have one and wear it in my shop for hours at a time when working with composites. Very comfortable. I'm not 100% sure that the Organic Vapour cartridges would have helped with Ammonia though, that's more your area of expertise!
You could improve your ammonia-yield from thermal purge-out if you are giving e.g. a spoon full of sodium-hydroxide (as used in your absorber tube behind the condenser) in the aqueous ammonia-solution before heating. Your freezer for the cold-trap is very elaborated! For "every-day-use" I would propose a pot from glas or steel with acetone/dry ice e.g in a plastic bowl filled with crushed styrofoam, to submerge the steel bottle in.
@@brandonjoki5533 If you have too many eyes and don´t need your house any more try snow and sulfuric acid (H2SO4) NO!!! It´s very dangerous because this mixture becomes very hot and boils explosively! Better try snow with normal salt (NaCl), CaCl2 or Na2SO4.
I have to say though, I've got good results from a mixture of two fertilizers, lime and ammonium sulphate. If lightly moistened the reaction produces copious ammonia gas with very little water in it. (The reaction mixture absorbs water and sets, so you a disposable container.) Not sure how well it'd scale up though.
I have worked with ammonia on large freezer plant (50 tonnes), we were advised on training that it is difficult to ignite however, a 17% air mixture is very explosive
Fun fact: Ammonia actually *liquifies* when its dissolved in the water. Its unstable hence its volatility but is meta stable due to strong hydrogen bond formarion. It's super easy to prove; the math is super easy to do. Find the density of anhydrous liquid ammonia at room temp, then add it in parts, for instance 25% ammonia solution would be (ammonia density) + 1g/mL (water) + 1 + 1 and then you will get the density of your liquid. GUESS WHAT it's the exact same density as you'll find for ammonia solution densities. Math: Anyhydrous Ammonia(liquid) density at 60°F (aprox.) .608g/mL Water density at 60°F(aprox.) 1g/mL 25% Ammonia-Water solution ((.608g/mL + 1g/mL + 1g/mL + 1g/mL)/(4)) This equals a density of .902g/mL which is the density of ammonia solution at 60°F
Very interesting video. I'd change a couple of things with your distillation set up though, rather than just having a stopper for over pressure venting I'd use a balloon zip tied to a hypodermic through a Suba Seal. That way you get to see the problem coming and do something about it. Sodium hydroxide will certainly dry the vapour but you've got the problem of having it dissolve and drip into your ammonia. You could fix that by altering your set up but a better solution would be to use molecular sieves which are easy to pick up on ebay. The good thing about sieves is you can reuse them (just don't try and dry them in a microwave).
Applied Science the 3 Angstrom molecular sieves could fit ammonia too, because it is similar bond length to water, around 100pm, but I don't think it would absorb them, because ammonia shouldn't have such a strong hydrogen bonding effect like water. The van der waals interactions should be weak enough between ammonia that it should just flow though. Large sieves are likely a better idea to minimize surface area for NH3 and H2O interaction due to H-bonding.
Applied Science I did wonder this when I suggested it. It's been a good few years since I was in the lab but I seem to remember sieves we're fairly specific for water due to hydrogen bonding. Obviously you'll get some ammonia uptake but I think it should be fairly small amount compared to how much you are distilling. If you do decide to continue using sodium hydroxide I'd suggest using something like a dreschel bottle rather than the set up you have at the moment. Sodium hydroxide can easily absorb enough water to become a liquid itself and a dreschel is easy to make. Another option would be to run the vapour through a pre-cooler to remove the water. An alcohol + dry ice bath would easily chill the vapour enough to remove the water (got to be careful about ammonia condensation though), a cheaper alternative is a salt ice bath (good for -15 at least)
Neat - Na and Ca work too. The solution can reduce almost any organic compound. I worked with a commercial application of Na-NH3 solution, and got to see a real NH3 fire ball one time. The gas mask helps protect your eyes, good call. A SS tube coil in dry ice might work better and avoid the freeze up. Commercially we recycled the gas with a compressor and condensed it at an elevate pressure in a water cooled heat ex. One word of advice: keep you escape path clear and be able to run like hell with your eyes closed - saved my a$$ one time.
the chiller was a unit you scored some time back and repaired, yes? enjoyed seeing it put to work. I once opened a valve on a tank of anhydrous ammonia, big mistake. I started learning about alternate universes. that one I didn't survive, learned to run real fast in this one. after closing same valve
Just a thought, but you could use a isopropyl alcohol/dry ice bath instead of the cryogenic freezer to avoid having to switch it on and off. Might not be really more convenient, but useful if you don't have the cryogenic freezer.
When I was in the USAF, there was a train that de-railed in Minot, ND that a tank railcar carrying anhydrous ammonia burst and gassed a big part of town with anhydrous ammonia. I remember waking up at 2am to an unbearably strong smell of ammonia that instantly gave me a headache. My roommate had the idea to use our gas masks and drive up to base, and it turned out that our gas masks helped a lot, despite everyone saying there is no way that they would.
@@SetTheCurve Yes I agree. That's an Israeli gas mask which was made in huge numbers and issued to the Israeli public around the time of the 1st Gulf War. They're available cheap in good condition on eBay and Amazon (I believe). They are especially nice because they have a check valve which doesn't block your voice so you can communicate well with other people even with it on, and it also takes standard NATO canisters. I have used it for chemistry stuff and it works very well. The standard-issue cartridge has very broad coverage, from particulates like asbestos and viruses to general chemical hazards like chlorine and ammonia, to nerve agents.
@@SetTheCurve lolwut? That's the exact opposite of the case. One of the biggest parts of civilian respiratory protection market is focused on ammonia specifically because of its agricultural uses. He could buy better respiratory protection at most midwest gas stations.
WOW! Once in a while I find real treasure out here, and I found it with your channel! I can't believe I never found your channel years ago! Anyway, I was having a little conundrum with ammonium hydroxide as I needed at least 30% for the projects I had lined up, but when I reordered there was a problem and now I have to wait about a month before I can reorder . My question is I've got store bought clear ammonia and I believe it's a whopping 7% ammonia, the rest h2o, so I was thinking of setting up a simple distillation apparatus just to raise the percentage to a usable level for a simple reaction I need to pull off. So, would a simple distillation setup be the way? And! What about 3a molecular sieves for a drying agent, as I have a ton of them? Thank you for this channel! I intend to watch everyone of these videos, as there gold! Take care
Hi there. So silica gel isn't the best desiccant for basic compounds thanks to the acidity of the free silanol groups on its surface. I've done a lot of birch reduction lately and we use a cold finger condenser with a dry ice-acetone/alcohol mixture to condense the ammonia into the reaction vessel. The setup is a two-necked flask cooled to -78C with a gas inlet and to the outlet you attach the cold finger condenser. To that you attach a NaOH filled guard tube. This setup makes is safe and reduces the amount of gas wasted.
When making his "anhydrous" ammonia, he should have sent it directly into the final storage container at -100 and let it freeze there. How about CaO (quicklime) as drying agent?
I just got myself one of these chillers via an online auction. It's working well although drawing a lot of current. I'm going to try and use it to make an anhydrous ammonia/ethanol solution. I'm curious to know if you have tried making a solution of ammonia in any other solvents? I will basically use your methods, except driving the ammonia gas into a stainless steel vessel containing chilled anhydrous/absolute ethanol. Then removing the remaining water (if any) by using Calcium oxide (which will form Calcium hydroxide when it comes in contact with water).
Glass wool?... Would just cotton suffice? (Since Its just holding in the sodium hydroxide, right?) And instead of sodium hydroxide, could magnesium sulfate be used? Or would that react as well?
A much more efficient way to make anhydrous ammonia is to combine ammonium nitrate and sodium hydroxide. The molar mass is much higher and you have far less water to contend with.
you should test the purity, for example let an ammonia filled test tube, with a thermometer inside, slowly heat up inside a beaker of cold ethanol and check at what temp it boils
You'd say that I'd be totally nuts not do it in a fumehood but what if I did it in the school lab after school when the fumehood was broken? (Everything was well greased and the ammonia was going through a scrubber.)
I'm fairly new to this type of thing, so I have some trouble identifying the different pieces of glassware. What are you using to hold the glass wool? It looks similar to a titration cylinder, but it does not seem exactly like one. Actually, would you mind writing a list of what equipment you used for this experiment?
"I used Silicone Grease to seal the ground glass joints so there's no leakage..." It also prevents the glass joints from sticking together. I am a Pothead, which is part of why I don't play games like this, unless I've been sober for 48 hours first. But, being a Pothead who uses Glassware for my Dabbing, I have found that my Bong's ground glass joints will stick together, if not sealed. This happens when the base item has a female socket, and the bowl (Quartz Cup, in my case) has a male fitting. The female socket expands when it warms up, and the male fitting slides in deeper. And when they all cool down, the grond glass fittings are gripping each other so tight, the only way to separate them is with a hammer. I dipped my Dab Stick into a bit of the "Reclaim" (Rosins) left at the bottom of my old rig, and used that as a sealer. *DO NOT USE SILICONE GREASE FOR THIS PURPOSE.* Silicone Grease is FOOD GRADE, _but that does NOT mean it is suitable for smoking!!_ It has SILICONE in it, and you DO NOT want to SMOKE GROUND GLASS.
That process when lithium metal is transformed into tri-or tetraammine electride is not the Birch reduction itself, for that you'd need to react this electride solution with e.g. benzene to form 1,4-dihydrobenzene. But still awesome demonstration as usual! Btw you could also make lithium amide by addition of a catalytic amount of ferrous chloride. I don't know what you could lithium amide for but still... You could. :D
I'm not sure about the USA, but over here in Europe it is quite easy to buy old surplus gas mask filters. They're about €5 each, might be worth checking out.
R 717 is a good choice for med temp systems and has been giving a bad rep. But seriously there are better ways to capture it open drive systems sound so much safer then what you did.
10:00 I wonder if utilizing dry ice in acetone in a nice dewar thermos would alleviate the issues with your cold trap being too cold? IIRC, that mixture achieves temperatures of ~-78 deg C, which is right around the melting point. However, when I tried this using a Stanley thermos from walmart, the lowest temp my thermocouple would show was around -70 deg C, which seems like it'd be pretty good for this purpose.
Judging by the temperature a cooling bath of dry ice and ethanol (-72°C) or isopropyl alcohol (-77°C) should be just right. I have absolutely no idea how much dry ice is needed per hour/day for a bath of that size, but it should definitely need less attention than having to switch on and off the freezer all the time. You aren't by any chance experimenting with lithium batteries? Again no idea what chemical steps are needed to produce them (I know of the physical construction and the chemical process for energy storage).
Is dry ice/ethanol cold enough to condense the NH3? The machinery is a bit inconvenient for a home lab; but dry ice and denatured alcohol can be bought from hardware stores and supermarkets.
@@Byefriendo I can't believe someone actually saw this comment and commented on it. You can tell I'm not a meth addict because I'm typing this on a smartphone. Addicts don't have smart phones because they're either pawned or traded for meth.
@@pantherplatform wrong. That's prejudiced. A few bad people give a whole culture a bad name. You just aren't aware of all the realities of the situation. Judgements and generalizations like this are a lot of what is wrong with society today.
To get a low enough temperature to condense the NH3, you can use a dry ice bath. CO2 melts at -56 deg.C, NH3 condenses at -33 deg.C. An organic solvent like acetone can be used for the bath.
Love your channel Ben, but like JK Smith says, keep your exit path clear, I worry about your safety on this project. I guess you survived, this is 4 years old.
Get a pressure suit there cheap and disposable you can get them from scientific supply stores take your air compressor out back with a small manifold with charcoal filters and carbon monoxide detector all in all it cost me about $700 to outfit really cool experiment what was the reason for using lithium dissolved in ammonia where you using it for some kind of coating?
I'm surprised the cold trap was able to get that cold without the seal on top. Also, where does one go to purchase chemicals as a private consumer? The vendors I deal with working in my lab seem to only deal with academic institutions and businesses.
I was thinking, could you run the gas after the NaOH drying tube thru a Stainless Steel coil that sits in a separate chiller like a can with acetone and dry ice, which all sits above the cyrofreeze bath where you keep your catch cylinder open with the cryofreezer allowed to run to its -100degrees temp and allow the liquified NH3 to just drip into the cylinder where it would possibly freeze and stay in solid state until the run is complete?
I live in Texas. If law enforcement hears you use the word "anhydrous" they file meth manufacturing with intent to distribute charges. Same thing goes for owning Pyrex or a glass coffee pot with no coffee maker. And owning a test tube makes the other charges aggravated.
Yet they are paid to look the other way as hundreds of tons of finished product crosses the border. The minor amounts they do capture are a show for the public to keep their jobs. If you do the math of the average user consumption, number of users per country US and Canada, the amount of demand that is met without interruption is hundreds of tons. That's a lot of fucking money. All in cash. So not only is there all that product weight coming in across borders, there is hundreds of tons of cash money leaving the country. You may see the occasional bust of product but you never see the bust of cash going out. Wonder why? Shutting down the mom and pop shops did not stop the demand. But it did pound our economy by having all that cash that would have stayed in circulation within the country, physically leave the country to be concentrated into the hands of a comparatively few cartels and syndicate crime organizations. It should be considered an act of treason. Plenty of cash for political payoffs. Thus the reason for shutting down the entrepreneur types with insane punishments. And using illegal surveillance methods to gather Intel and execute illegally obtained warrants. The tech involved was nsa level stuff. The hardware was deep state level stuff. No chance for the average idiot. The real crime being committed is what the governments are doing to the people. Want to fix the economy? Legalize and tax. Follow the weed. Its the only way left. Still can't believe he did a birch! All those solvated electrons and nothing to convert.
That’s ridiculous. I especially can’t stand the idiotic people who think the word “anhydrous” refers to a chemical. And that chemical is only used to make meth. 6 syllables is way too much for these people. Including the police officers.
dont wanna try to tell you how to do you job by any means, but most gas mask filters dont protect you against ammonia vapors. just food for thought, not too sure what you have, but something to look into for future uses!
...this is exactly the kinds of things i love to attempt, love that you share all of the hurdles and problem solving...thats the best part! TY for sharing.
Is contamination with mercaptan left over in the propane tank a concern? I've tried to get rid of it in the past by purging tanks with air at 100psi and could still smell it after about a dozen cycles.
Yes this was a major question I had.... I believe you can clean the mercaptain with either high purity alcohol, or acetone,benzene, toluene,xylene and NATURALLY DRY! when no more liquid is left after cleaning the tank. Give it a smell...If its still contaminated with mercaptain throw out! If it's relatively new you will have a mercaptain free tank.
You can always make the K(OH) - KC + Ca(O) into solution (1 mol each) = K(OH) and CaC. I make it from wood ash and hydrated lime or pickeling lime. If you can get quick lime from a concreat plant your golden.
Ammonia will burn but has a very narrow combustible range between the UEL and LEL, it also requires hazardous area considerations and design in industrial applications.
do i have to have fancy equipment if i have dry ice to condense the ammonia vapor and i have suitable dessicants......basically will my ghetto generator work
Probably. Get gas mask. Wear swimming pool goggles. Use thermal gloves. Have 5 gallon bucket of water nearby in case of spill on skin get wet right away. Best done outdoors with breeze and no neighbors. Then instead of 5 gallon bucket, fill up kiddie pool and jump in if spill. 4 years ago, you have already done it or not, but others will be reading this so this is for them.
I worked as a refrigeration maintenance engineer for 40 years. Pure ammonia is very dangerous unless controlled. I worked on systems with 50,000 pounds of NH3. We had several small incidents and released some ammonia which then went down wind into the neighborhood and caused NO problems. I would use a respirator when entering an area with ammonia. But the respirator would not work in concentrations greater than 300 PPM. The ammonia will cause lye burns and is corrosive to copper and brass.
We have 35 tons of R717 (refrig-grade NH3) and it is no joke if you have a release.
In our HAZWOPER training, they showed us films of them spraying it into an open flame. It has to be JUST the right concentration to burn. It is an excellent refrigerant.
You can stick a dollar bill in the stuff and it will shrink the bill.
***** too bad we don't use more of those systems.. those legacy technologies were the best. your videos are also a favorite of mine, many thanks. keep up the good work guys.
It's very commonly used for large industrial systems. The best refrigerant in the world, next to water.
+TAOFLEDERMAUS fucking baddass to see you here, man
+TAOFLEDERMAUS Also used in a small refrigeration device called an icey ball. Can be made in any shop and powered with a campfire.
as if refrigeration isn't expensive enough.. spinning, cheap gas, water and evaporation.
*thank you so much* American science youtuber who uses celsius instead of fahrenheit.
angus huynh Yes we can count on our fingers and toes, just like you foreigners, ;-)
angus huynh Well, it IS the scientific standard. Not sure why you're so surprised.
Kelvin or gtfo
Kirbyofdeath Nope.
Kelvin is.
No valid chemistry class teaches in Celsius.
It makes me happy America will never adopt Celsius.
When I graduated high school, we were given an equation to convert BARBARIAN units to civilized ones.
Celsius was then immediately left behind for Kelvin and Fahrenheit.
"You'd have to be totally nuts to not do this in a fume hood"
*Proceeds to not do it in a fume hood
Ive always wanted to shrink a dollar bill in liquid ammonia, maybe you should do it and i can live vicariously through your youtube video ;)
Few people have found this comment.
@@user-MrKips right? And don't confuse me for him. I'm not that hyper, though maybe I should be for my videos. Hahaha!
@@BackYardScience2000 lol
I have done it several times. I still have one, gave the rest away.
Very few @@user-MrKips
Very cool! The color change from blue to metallic is associated with a phase transition from an electrolytic solution, as you suggested, composed of Li+ and solvated electrons, to a metallic phase, which is lusterous and has a marked increase in conductivity (on the order of mercury metal).
thanks for telling me the resistance!
My hat is off to you sir. There are so many experiments that I have done or want to do but this is not even nearly on my bucket list because I just don't want to die that way.
Long time ago as a kid (30 years ago) I seen a man get frozen by a leak of anhydrous ammonia. It came out of the tanks we were dragging behind the tillers to fertilize the soil. The line broke and there was a large cloud, he ran in to shut it off and didn't make it. The emergency shut offs kicked in and we run down to him, he was blue. If it wasn't for my boss Hans taking the chewing tobacco out of his mouth and giving him mouth to mouth he would be dead. Got to love our food system.
That's an odd fanfiction for the ending of Terminator 2
@@xephael3485 truuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu
god must have saved him.
Fertilized story with bullshit.
@@shitheadjohnson2797 Or he just got lucky, and had someone there who knew what to do.
I held my breath just watching this! Stay safe, we would miss you.
Looking at the ammonia charts on engineer toolbox, if you sent the ammonia gas directly to the pressure tank (obviously not using the glass, but replacing with SS or aluminum tubing), you could liquify with ice water bath around 75psi. Might be a better way to go for us simple folk without cryogenic coolers. Also the water would condense quicker at the higher pressure. See any problems with this plan that I may be overlooking? This would be great for Einstein refrigerator, solar absorption refrigerator, etc. Hydrogen is a lot easier to get, especially when u already have the lye. A few aluminum cans and you're on your way! I can't say enough about this great TH-cam channel!
I think you will find that propane cylinder is brazed together... which may be a problem if NH3 corrodes copper based metals...
Sigmatechnica I should have bought two, and torn one apart for inspection. Do you have any docs that describe propane cylinder construction? Maybe I can find a brand that is welded.
Applied Science I don't have any docs, however I ripped apart an identical looking cylinder that had held MAPP gas, and distinctly recall both the middle seam and the valves being brazed in place...
Sigmatechnica could be an important point, lol
will rapidly corrode copper to the point of breaking apart.
If it is truly anhydrous, the ammonia wont attack copper. But, even a few ppm of water and you would have a problem.
Great videos! Just a couple of suggestions. If you use dry ice, you won't have to worry about the ammonia freezing. Also, give your condensation chamber an exit tube, and lead it to an inverted funnel sitting just below the surface of water. It will absorb any excess ammonia and the funnel prevents any suck back. Then you won't have to worry about priming the chamber with ammonia, and you won't have any (or very little) ammonia escaping. I can explain better if you want.
I've always found your videos interesting but as a chemistry undergrad this video was especially interesting! Very familar glassware setup used in a way I have not done. Hope to see more videos like this :D
I really don't want to be a wise guy, but dissolving Sodium/Lithium in liquid Ammonia is not called Birch Reduction. It's a reaction in organic chemistry which reduces Aromates to the corresponding (1,4)-Dienes. Of course it uses the solvated electrons generated by Sodium in Liquid Ammonia, but the reaction of the solvated electrons with the Aromate ( e.g. Benzene) is called Birch Reduction and not the Reaction of Sodium/Lithium with Ammonia. Just to be technically correct ;) Anyway, I LOVE your Videos ! :)
Timo Schramm I caught this same slip, but couldn’t have put it so well with any confidence. Bravo.
I don’t think this sort of correction is wise guyery.
Perhaps his slip was related to whatever he plans on doing with this stuff.
Anhydrous, Lithium, Sodium Hydroxide... Hmmm sounds familiar.
You should make a Leiden jar with that liquid conductor you made. I'd also be interested in seeing a van de graf how to or at least how they work.
The electride solution was fascinating, never heard of it before. Cool!
when I seen the lithium I was waiting for the ephedrine too.
Grady Bledsoe lol, this is the reason I was reading the comments, I wanted to see some good meth lab comments
@@danchan7116 same YT is classic for these
Funny because this was next after a birch reaction and there was meth talk there too, just found it irronic this came up next
Dan Chan same.
Edit- and next in the meth 101 series we have.....
I was like, wtf lithium, wanna make meth?
I find those propane bottles are brazed together rather than welded, the braze might react with the ammonia.
That smell is what make NH3 so great unlike the other man made refrigerants it tells you before it kills you!
I was in the engine room of a food factory when techs were swapping out oil in a compressor. Just them pouring it into the waste oil barrel was enough to trigger a cough.
@@DriftHyena JUST before it kills you. Pure ammonia is extraordinarily dangerous. Definitely read up on its physical hazards *before* making any.
@@Miata822 just before it kills you? What do you mean? Because I'm a RITA certified operator, and have been in some fairly dangerous scenarios. Such as walking into an engine room with liquid NH3 leaking out of a high pressure liquid line. So reading up on it has its limitations. Trained professionals have book knowledge, and experience.
The thing about NH3 is it fills the air making it obvious there's a leak which is actually a benefit. Manmade refrigerants are nowhere near as obvious (which is a great point @pirate69s made BTW), making it much more likely to harm you severely. However NH3 is not like carbon monoxide. Like @pirate69s stated, it tells you (meaning lets you know it's presence, and makes you wanna run away) before it kills you. But in order for it to kill you, you'd have to inhale some pretty high concentrations of it. This is quite hard to do being your respiratory muscles contract tremendously upon inhalation. The odor it puts off when concentration levels are higher stings you nostrils making you cry, followed by a natural instinct forcing you to stop inhaling. It could kill you if you don't leave the area *AND* continue to inhale the "gasses". But that's hard to do. It gives off an odor that makes you run away. It causes you to cough if inhaled into your lungs. And even may cause respiratory damage if high concentrations of it is inhaled, or prolonged exposure to NH3 gases. It puts off a cloud when it's in very high concentrations. Anyone seeing it will run away if they know it's an NH3 cloud. If they don't know it's an NH3 cloud (or are ignorant of its effects) and inhale the cloud, they will likely suffer respiratory damage, and will have to be treated at a hospital if they're able to run away to fresh air. It's very difficult to breath twice in high concentrations. Because your body has natural defense mechanisms that stops you from inhaling it.
@ScotchFox made mention of the strong odor that it puts off when compressor oil is disposed of (meaning NH3 was trapped in the oil, releasing gasses when poured). This is moderate exposure to NH3 gases, but didn't kill him. Point I'm trying to drive in here is your comment doesn't seem to make much sense when placed in context of what both of these fellas said.
Normally people that fear monger on NH3, has not much of any clue as to the true dangers involved in handling NH3, so they just say it's some really dangerous stuff, so do your research. But like I said, it's not like it's carbon monoxide. It's an excellent refrigerant. It's a shame it's not used as much anymore, because it's an extremely efficient refrigerant to use. And isn't nowhere near as bad for the environment as many man made refrigerant are.
@@Miata822 you should probably look up actual anhydrous ammonia studies, it’s not going to immediately kill you unless it’s well over 10,000 ppm. Your comment acts like a few inhales of it and your dead 😂😂 no
@@mcore1435 I was posting about the physical hazards, not toxicity. Ammonia refrigerant systems contain large volumes of pure liquid ammonia. Typically used in large fully enclosed deep freeze rooms concentrations from a leak can quickly reach lethal levels but the chemical burns to your tissues, especially lungs, will kill you long before the toxicity does if exposed to pure vaporizing liquid.
Great demo! You've built up a very nice collection of glassware. I look forward to seeing what you'll use the ammonia for.
mikeissweet You should submerge your lithium under mineral oil btw
@doc dave only ever seen it on video. Magnesium also makes a quite brilliant light when burned 😎
Gee I wonder
You sir, are mega awesome, clear, precise and logical explanation!!!!
Thank you!!!
Nice to see some real intelligence on here for a change,some of the others on here are going to get someone seriously injured or worse! Great job
Hey Ben! Fun video as always! If you want a nice full-face respirator I recommend the North 5400 series, I have one and wear it in my shop for hours at a time when working with composites. Very comfortable. I'm not 100% sure that the Organic Vapour cartridges would have helped with Ammonia though, that's more your area of expertise!
You could improve your ammonia-yield from thermal purge-out if you are giving e.g. a spoon full of sodium-hydroxide (as used in your absorber tube behind the condenser) in the aqueous ammonia-solution before heating.
Your freezer for the cold-trap is very elaborated! For "every-day-use" I would propose a pot from glas or steel with acetone/dry ice e.g in a plastic bowl filled with crushed styrofoam, to submerge the steel bottle in.
Styrofoam. Dry ice is hard to get here. I read that h2so4 with snow gets cold enough
@@brandonjoki5533 If you have too many eyes and don´t need your house any more try snow and sulfuric acid (H2SO4)
NO!!! It´s very dangerous because this mixture becomes very hot and boils explosively!
Better try snow with normal salt (NaCl), CaCl2 or Na2SO4.
I have to say though, I've got good results from a mixture of two fertilizers, lime and ammonium sulphate. If lightly moistened the reaction produces copious ammonia gas with very little water in it. (The reaction mixture absorbs water and sets, so you a disposable container.) Not sure how well it'd scale up though.
filthy smell would come out of that. i hate this stuff is it useful for anything?
Glad you are still alive with all that ammonia. Be careful man. We need you.
I have worked with ammonia on large freezer plant (50 tonnes), we were advised on training that it is difficult to ignite however, a 17% air mixture is very explosive
a number of things can be horrifyingly flammable at a stoichiometric mixture, and relatively safe at other concentrations.
So is this the same stuff put ac systems
Fun fact:
Ammonia actually *liquifies* when its dissolved in the water. Its unstable hence its volatility but is meta stable due to strong hydrogen bond formarion. It's super easy to prove; the math is super easy to do. Find the density of anhydrous liquid ammonia at room temp, then add it in parts, for instance 25% ammonia solution would be (ammonia density) + 1g/mL (water) + 1 + 1 and then you will get the density of your liquid. GUESS WHAT it's the exact same density as you'll find for ammonia solution densities.
Math:
Anyhydrous Ammonia(liquid) density at 60°F (aprox.)
.608g/mL
Water density at 60°F(aprox.)
1g/mL
25% Ammonia-Water solution
((.608g/mL + 1g/mL + 1g/mL + 1g/mL)/(4))
This equals a density of .902g/mL which is the density of ammonia solution at 60°F
An old school ice box appliance called a Crosley Ball or Icey ball could make use of this. Or an RV 3-way Dometic fridge.
your videos are really good never thought you have that much videos in your playlist
Very interesting video. I'd change a couple of things with your distillation set up though, rather than just having a stopper for over pressure venting I'd use a balloon zip tied to a hypodermic through a Suba Seal. That way you get to see the problem coming and do something about it.
Sodium hydroxide will certainly dry the vapour but you've got the problem of having it dissolve and drip into your ammonia. You could fix that by altering your set up but a better solution would be to use molecular sieves which are easy to pick up on ebay. The good thing about sieves is you can reuse them (just don't try and dry them in a microwave).
CNCtrl Those are great suggestions! Thanks. I have finely powered 3A sieve, but I think that I will get some pellets, which would be way more useful.
CNCtrl What a minute, would a 3A sieve catch NH3 as well? It's about the same size as H2O.
Applied Science the 3 Angstrom molecular sieves could fit ammonia too, because it is similar bond length to water, around 100pm, but I don't think it would absorb them, because ammonia shouldn't have such a strong hydrogen bonding effect like water. The van der waals interactions should be weak enough between ammonia that it should just flow though. Large sieves are likely a better idea to minimize surface area for NH3 and H2O interaction due to H-bonding.
Applied Science I did wonder this when I suggested it. It's been a good few years since I was in the lab but I seem to remember sieves we're fairly specific for water due to hydrogen bonding. Obviously you'll get some ammonia uptake but I think it should be fairly small amount compared to how much you are distilling. If you do decide to continue using sodium hydroxide I'd suggest using something like a dreschel bottle rather than the set up you have at the moment. Sodium hydroxide can easily absorb enough water to become a liquid itself and a dreschel is easy to make. Another option would be to run the vapour through a pre-cooler to remove the water. An alcohol + dry ice bath would easily chill the vapour enough to remove the water (got to be careful about ammonia condensation though), a cheaper alternative is a salt ice bath (good for -15 at least)
@@AppliedScience
Anhydrous sodium sulfate would work well too.
I wish I had the equipment to do this. What I could do with a cylinder of anhydrous ammonia... so many things! Thanks for the video.
So that little bit will go along way? If I'm thinking what you are thinking
Careful those propane cylinders are braised together at the seem. i wouldn't like you to get hurt, i do enjoy your videos. Thanks Ron
Your experiments are amazing and very educational - please continue!!
Neat - Na and Ca work too. The solution can reduce almost any organic compound. I worked with a commercial application of Na-NH3 solution, and got to see a real NH3 fire ball one time. The gas mask helps protect your eyes, good call. A SS tube coil in dry ice might work better and avoid the freeze up. Commercially we recycled the gas with a compressor and condensed it at an elevate pressure in a water cooled heat ex. One word of advice: keep you escape path clear and be able to run like hell with your eyes closed - saved my a$$ one time.
Why what's can go wrong
How much liquid gas should be put into the cylinder? Like do you fill the tank to half way, 3/4 of the way, or something else?
the chiller was a unit you scored some time back and repaired, yes?
enjoyed seeing it put to work. I once opened a valve on a tank of anhydrous ammonia, big mistake. I started learning about alternate universes. that one I didn't survive, learned to run real fast in this one. after closing same valve
Just a thought, but you could use a isopropyl alcohol/dry ice bath instead of the cryogenic freezer to avoid having to switch it on and off. Might not be really more convenient, but useful if you don't have the cryogenic freezer.
Ben is literally my favorite person in the world
You're gonna tell me you have a scanning electron microscope, but no legit respirators? Priorities lol
gubberfuck that gas mask is actually significantly better than most otc respirators for this application.
God help him if he didn’t have it around
When I was in the USAF, there was a train that de-railed in Minot, ND that a tank railcar carrying anhydrous ammonia burst and gassed a big part of town with anhydrous ammonia. I remember waking up at 2am to an unbearably strong smell of ammonia that instantly gave me a headache. My roommate had the idea to use our gas masks and drive up to base, and it turned out that our gas masks helped a lot, despite everyone saying there is no way that they would.
69 likes
@@SetTheCurve Yes I agree. That's an Israeli gas mask which was made in huge numbers and issued to the Israeli public around the time of the 1st Gulf War. They're available cheap in good condition on eBay and Amazon (I believe). They are especially nice because they have a check valve which doesn't block your voice so you can communicate well with other people even with it on, and it also takes standard NATO canisters. I have used it for chemistry stuff and it works very well. The standard-issue cartridge has very broad coverage, from particulates like asbestos and viruses to general chemical hazards like chlorine and ammonia, to nerve agents.
@@SetTheCurve lolwut?
That's the exact opposite of the case. One of the biggest parts of civilian respiratory protection market is focused on ammonia specifically because of its agricultural uses.
He could buy better respiratory protection at most midwest gas stations.
You are THE NEXT LEVEL. Thanks for your amazing channel.
WOW! Once in a while I find real treasure out here, and I found it with your channel! I can't believe I never found your channel years ago! Anyway, I was having a little conundrum with ammonium hydroxide as I needed at least 30% for the projects I had lined up, but when I reordered there was a problem and now I have to wait about a month before I can reorder . My question is I've got store bought clear ammonia and I believe it's a whopping 7% ammonia, the rest h2o, so I was thinking of setting up a simple distillation apparatus just to raise the percentage to a usable level for a simple reaction I need to pull off. So, would a simple distillation setup be the way? And! What about 3a molecular sieves for a drying agent, as I have a ton of them? Thank you for this channel! I intend to watch everyone of these videos, as there gold! Take care
Awesome video. Taught me allot more than you expect
Funny. I JUST watched a Periodic Videos episode with the Burch Reaction as well. Great video! Thanks for sharing
Hi there. So silica gel isn't the best desiccant for basic compounds thanks to the acidity of the free silanol groups on its surface.
I've done a lot of birch reduction lately and we use a cold finger condenser with a dry ice-acetone/alcohol mixture to condense the ammonia into the reaction vessel. The setup is a two-necked flask cooled to -78C with a gas inlet and to the outlet you attach the cold finger condenser. To that you attach a NaOH filled guard tube.
This setup makes is safe and reduces the amount of gas wasted.
Amazing video. I love your channel. The color of the Lithium dissolved in the ammonia reminded me of Cesium after it's been oxidized slightly.
When making his "anhydrous" ammonia, he should have sent it directly into the final storage container at -100 and let it freeze there. How about CaO (quicklime) as drying agent?
I just got myself one of these chillers via an online auction. It's working well although drawing a lot of current. I'm going to try and use it to make an anhydrous ammonia/ethanol solution. I'm curious to know if you have tried making a solution of ammonia in any other solvents? I will basically use your methods, except driving the ammonia gas into a stainless steel vessel containing chilled anhydrous/absolute ethanol. Then removing the remaining water (if any) by using Calcium oxide (which will form Calcium hydroxide when it comes in contact with water).
Do you try to build home made Lithium batteries ? If not, Do you think it possible to do a DIY Lithium battery topic. Thanks, Amazing Channel !
These videos are my only hope in an otherwise desolate life.
The NH3 CaCl solar freezer uses black iron tanks and plumbing. SS is usually expensive.
Glass wool?... Would just cotton suffice? (Since Its just holding in the sodium hydroxide, right?)
And instead of sodium hydroxide, could magnesium sulfate be used? Or would that react as well?
Fun fact, the XLR99 rocket engine that was used on the X-15 used liquid ammonia and liquid oxygen as fuel.
A much more efficient way to make anhydrous ammonia is to combine ammonium nitrate and sodium hydroxide. The molar mass is much higher and you have far less water to contend with.
you should test the purity, for example let an ammonia filled test tube, with a thermometer inside, slowly heat up inside a beaker of cold ethanol and check at what temp it boils
You'd say that I'd be totally nuts not do it in a fumehood but what if I did it in the school lab after school when the fumehood was broken? (Everything was well greased and the ammonia was going through a scrubber.)
Might be best to use an ammonium salt such as NH4Cl and add it to a concentrated NaOH solution to form ammonia
My chemistry teacher told me he'd give me $100 if I could make some anhydrous H2O for him. I'm pretty sure I'm close.
I'm fairly new to this type of thing, so I have some trouble identifying the different pieces of glassware. What are you using to hold the glass wool? It looks similar to a titration cylinder, but it does not seem exactly like one.
Actually, would you mind writing a list of what equipment you used for this experiment?
If you're interested in building a heating mantle, I believe nurdrage posted a video on building one. I'm going to go find the video, watch this space
Make a High Temperature Heating Mantle: th-cam.com/video/N5meDWAqYes/w-d-xo.html
Rob Mckennie When I saw the video title the first thing that came to mind was Nerdrage.
Thanks for sharing the stuff I wouldn't do at home. :-)
Oh yes! And thank you for using Celsius! You are the man!
"I used Silicone Grease to seal the ground glass joints so there's no leakage..."
It also prevents the glass joints from sticking together.
I am a Pothead, which is part of why I don't play games like this, unless I've been sober for 48 hours first. But, being a Pothead who uses Glassware for my Dabbing, I have found that my Bong's ground glass joints will stick together, if not sealed. This happens when the base item has a female socket, and the bowl (Quartz Cup, in my case) has a male fitting. The female socket expands when it warms up, and the male fitting slides in deeper. And when they all cool down, the grond glass fittings are gripping each other so tight, the only way to separate them is with a hammer.
I dipped my Dab Stick into a bit of the "Reclaim" (Rosins) left at the bottom of my old rig, and used that as a sealer.
*DO NOT USE SILICONE GREASE FOR THIS PURPOSE.* Silicone Grease is FOOD GRADE, _but that does NOT mean it is suitable for smoking!!_
It has SILICONE in it, and you DO NOT want to SMOKE GROUND GLASS.
extremely interesting, i'm looking forward for more
That process when lithium metal is transformed into tri-or tetraammine electride is not the Birch reduction itself, for that you'd need to react this electride solution with e.g. benzene to form 1,4-dihydrobenzene. But still awesome demonstration as usual! Btw you could also make lithium amide by addition of a catalytic amount of ferrous chloride. I don't know what you could lithium amide for but still... You could. :D
Thank You!
I really wish you were part of my bug out plan. Sure could use someone with your skills
I'm not sure about the USA, but over here in Europe it is quite easy to buy old surplus gas mask filters. They're about €5 each, might be worth checking out.
R 717 is a good choice for med temp systems and has been giving a bad rep. But seriously there are better ways to capture it open drive systems sound so much safer then what you did.
10:00 I wonder if utilizing dry ice in acetone in a nice dewar thermos would alleviate the issues with your cold trap being too cold?
IIRC, that mixture achieves temperatures of ~-78 deg C, which is right around the melting point. However, when I tried this using a Stanley thermos from walmart, the lowest temp my thermocouple would show was around -70 deg C, which seems like it'd be pretty good for this purpose.
So I finally got to see the "most beautiful blue" that all those guys in prison kept talking about. It really is cool.
Judging by the temperature a cooling bath of dry ice and ethanol (-72°C) or isopropyl alcohol (-77°C) should be just right. I have absolutely no idea how much dry ice is needed per hour/day for a bath of that size, but it should definitely need less attention than having to switch on and off the freezer all the time.
You aren't by any chance experimenting with lithium batteries? Again no idea what chemical steps are needed to produce them (I know of the physical construction and the chemical process for energy storage).
How come you have so much knowledge in vastly different areas?
Is dry ice/ethanol cold enough to condense the NH3? The machinery is a bit inconvenient for a home lab; but dry ice and denatured alcohol can be bought from hardware stores and supermarkets.
Will you please make an instructional video for making pure crystal methamphetamine?
I second this motion
@@Byefriendo I can't believe someone actually saw this comment and commented on it. You can tell I'm not a meth addict because I'm typing this on a smartphone. Addicts don't have smart phones because they're either pawned or traded for meth.
@@pantherplatform? You know im joking right lmao
@@pantherplatform wrong. That's prejudiced. A few bad people give a whole culture a bad name. You just aren't aware of all the realities of the situation. Judgements and generalizations like this are a lot of what is wrong with society today.
To get a low enough temperature to condense the NH3, you can use a dry ice bath. CO2 melts at -56 deg.C, NH3 condenses at -33 deg.C. An organic solvent like acetone can be used for the bath.
Love your channel Ben, but like JK Smith says, keep your exit path clear, I worry about your safety on this project. I guess you survived, this is 4 years old.
It's my understanding that the lower and upper explosive limits for ammonia are 150,000 ppm and 280,000 ppm respectively.
To see ones self in electrons is to know your place in the universe.
How can you test the purity of the anhydrous ammonia?
Adam R Gotta cook!
Gas chromatograph is the way it is done commercially. At home you could titrate an aliquot with HCl to get a fairly good number.
Absorption chiller?! Oh, the suspense!
Get a pressure suit there cheap and disposable you can get them from scientific supply stores take your air compressor out back with a small manifold with charcoal filters and carbon monoxide detector all in all it cost me about $700 to outfit really cool experiment what was the reason for using lithium dissolved in ammonia where you using it for some kind of coating?
I'm surprised the cold trap was able to get that cold without the seal on top.
Also, where does one go to purchase chemicals as a private consumer? The vendors I deal with working in my lab seem to only deal with academic institutions and businesses.
I was thinking, could you run the gas after the NaOH drying tube thru a Stainless Steel coil that sits in a separate chiller like a can with acetone and dry ice, which all sits above the cyrofreeze bath where you keep your catch cylinder open with the cryofreezer allowed to run to its -100degrees temp and allow the liquified NH3 to just drip into the cylinder where it would possibly freeze and stay in solid state until the run is complete?
Fantastic work! I bet your stirrer bar turned black though.
Reminds me of the times when I manufactured mdma... That ammonia smell in the morning...
Woulda been MDA
These videos are fascinating. I bet you played with matches when you were a kid!
USWaterRockets don't know if its still true but it was kinda always know that chemists usually start as pyros
+YusakuGod True Story
Have you considered dissolving anhydrous ammonium nitrate in liquid ammonia? Concentrated solution is supposed to boil at over 20 deg C.
Fantastic video! Thank you for making it. Looking forward to your next video!
I live in Texas. If law enforcement hears you use the word "anhydrous" they file meth manufacturing with intent to distribute charges. Same thing goes for owning Pyrex or a glass coffee pot with no coffee maker. And owning a test tube makes the other charges aggravated.
Yet they are paid to look the other way as hundreds of tons of finished product crosses the border.
The minor amounts they do capture are a show for the public to keep their jobs.
If you do the math of the average user consumption, number of users per country US and Canada, the amount of demand that is met without interruption is hundreds of tons.
That's a lot of fucking money. All in cash. So not only is there all that product weight coming in across borders, there is hundreds of tons of cash money leaving the country.
You may see the occasional bust of product but you never see the bust of cash going out. Wonder why?
Shutting down the mom and pop shops did not stop the demand. But it did pound our economy by having all that cash that would have stayed in circulation within the country, physically leave the country to be concentrated into the hands of a comparatively few cartels and syndicate crime organizations.
It should be considered an act of treason.
Plenty of cash for political payoffs.
Thus the reason for shutting down the entrepreneur types with insane punishments.
And using illegal surveillance methods to gather Intel and execute illegally obtained warrants. The tech involved was nsa level stuff. The hardware was deep state level stuff. No chance for the average idiot.
The real crime being committed is what the governments are doing to the people.
Want to fix the economy? Legalize and tax. Follow the weed. Its the only way left.
Still can't believe he did a birch! All those solvated electrons and nothing to convert.
That’s ridiculous. I especially can’t stand the idiotic people who think the word “anhydrous” refers to a chemical. And that chemical is only used to make meth. 6 syllables is way too much for these people. Including the police officers.
dont wanna try to tell you how to do you job by any means, but most gas mask filters dont protect you against ammonia vapors. just food for thought, not too sure what you have, but something to look into for future uses!
Very informative. Thank you!
Also, your binary clock needs to be set :)
...this is exactly the kinds of things i love to attempt, love that you share all of the hurdles and problem solving...thats the best part! TY for sharing.
Is contamination with mercaptan left over in the propane tank a concern? I've tried to get rid of it in the past by purging tanks with air at 100psi and could still smell it after about a dozen cycles.
Yes this was a major question I had.... I believe you can clean the mercaptain with either high purity alcohol, or acetone,benzene, toluene,xylene and NATURALLY DRY! when no more liquid is left after cleaning the tank. Give it a smell...If its still contaminated with mercaptain throw out! If it's relatively new you will have a mercaptain free tank.
You can always make the K(OH) - KC + Ca(O) into solution (1 mol each) = K(OH) and CaC. I make it from wood ash and hydrated lime or pickeling lime. If you can get quick lime from a concreat plant your golden.
Silica Gel is a specialized form of Silicon Dioxide so it wouldn't usually react with NH3
Awesome channel and videos! Going to watch more!
When is the next video, you can't leave us with a cliff hanger like that
Bahahaha
Ammonia will burn but has a very narrow combustible range between the UEL and LEL, it also requires hazardous area considerations and design in industrial applications.
Cant wait to see the next thing. The lithium thing was so cool :P
do i have to have fancy equipment if i have dry ice to condense the ammonia vapor and i have suitable dessicants......basically will my ghetto generator work
ghetto gens work probably better. reaction less than 45mins.. for those that who wise to remain discreet
Probably. Get gas mask. Wear swimming pool goggles. Use thermal gloves. Have 5 gallon bucket of water nearby in case of spill on skin get wet right away. Best done outdoors with breeze and no neighbors. Then instead of 5 gallon bucket, fill up kiddie pool and jump in if spill.
4 years ago, you have already done it or not, but others will be reading this so this is for them.
I worked as a refrigeration maintenance engineer for 40 years. Pure ammonia is very dangerous unless controlled. I worked on systems with 50,000 pounds of NH3. We had several small incidents and released some ammonia which then went down wind into the neighborhood and caused NO problems. I would use a respirator when entering an area with ammonia. But the respirator would not work in concentrations greater than 300 PPM. The ammonia will cause lye burns and is corrosive to copper and brass.
I'm guessing it caused no problems in the neighborhood because it's lighter than air and went up.