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====Path====
====Path====
Distilling impure water gives a distillate with no dissolved solids or biological pathogens. There are compounds which form azeotropes with water, so the distillate may not be ''completely'' pure, but it will be adequate for our  purposes.
Distilling impure water gives a distillate with no dissolved solids or biological pathogens. There are compounds which form azeotropes with water, so the distillate may not be ''completely'' pure, but it will be adequate for our  purposes.
===Calcium Hydroxide===
{| class="wikitable dtab"
|+Lime and quicklime
!NOWA?
!Substance
!Status
|-
|{{nowatag}}||[[Limestone]]||'''Pending'''
|-
|{{libtag}}||[[Calcium oxide]]||'''Pending'''
|-
|{{libtag}}||[[Calcium hydroxide]]||'''Pending'''
|}
====Justification====
Calcium hydroxide is a strong alkali and can be used to produce [[sodium hydroxide]], an essential [[:Category:Industrial Chemicals|industrial chemical]].
====Path====
* Gather [[limestone]]
* Heat it, producing calcium oxide.
* Slake it with water, producing calcium hydroxide.
===Copper chloride===
===Copper chloride===
{| class="wikitable dtab"
{| class="wikitable dtab"

Revision as of 16:51, 29 January 2021

Products

Goals

Water

Water via distillation
NOWA? Substance Status
NOWA Salt water Pending
LIBR Sea salt Pending
LIBR Distilled Water Pending

Justification

Pure (ish) water is an essential for life, not just chemistry. Preparing it at scale is important.

Path

Distilling impure water gives a distillate with no dissolved solids or biological pathogens. There are compounds which form azeotropes with water, so the distillate may not be completely pure, but it will be adequate for our purposes.

Copper chloride

Copper chloride
NOWA? Substance Status
LIBR Ammonium carbonate Pending
LIBR Sea salt Prev
NOWA Carbon dioxide Prev
LIBR Ammonium chloride Pending
NOWA Chalcocite Pending
LIBR Copper (II) oxide Pending
LIBR Copper (II) chloride Pending

Justification

Copper chloride provides a simple chemical path to the production of sulfuric acid.

Path

While both copper and the chloride ion are abundant in nature, almost all the chloride is found in salt, where the chloride is very tightly bound to sodium. Getting chloride in a more available form is a vital step to producing copper chloride. In the absence of electrolysis for the Chloralkali or Castner-Kellner processes, producing ammonium chloride is the simplest process for separating the chloride ion from (abundant) salt.

From ammonium chloride, copper chloride can be made by heating it with copper (II) oxide.

Sulfuric Acid

Sulfuric acid via copper chloride
NOWA? Substance Status
LIBR Copper (II) chloride Prev
LIBR Sulfur dioxide Pending
LIBR Sulfuric acid Pending

Justification

It can be argued that sulfuric acid is the primary industrial chemical. For the 19th and most of the 20th centuries, measuring a nation's sulfuric acid production was a good indicator of their degree of industrialization.

Path

  • Currently most sulfuric acid is produced by the contact process. Unfortunately this requires catalysts made of uncommonly rare materials, usually platinum or vanadium pentoxide. It is also done at high temperatures. This is not impossible on the benchtop, but for now we will seek an easier way.
  • We will produce sulfuric acid by the copper chloride process. Since copper chloride is not naturally occurring (except in very rare circumstances) we will first need to produce that.

Next Goal

FAQ

  1. What is NOWA-CL?
    There's a video on that question.
    NOWA stands for Naturally Occurring Widely Available. The CL stands for Chemical Library. This project is about documenting the technological steps involved in developing a library of chemical compounds that can be made with simple equipment from materials that are naturally occurring and widely available. There's no need to order chemicals from supply houses, or obtain them from over-the-counter products. Once a chemical has been produced in quantity from naturally occurring widely available sources, we add it to our "library". Then we can use that material to produce new materials. The important part is to demonstrate that they can be produced from these sources with minimal equipment: what the chemical industry refers to as "small-scale" or "laboratory" synthesis.
    The documentary part of this project will include two main products: the text on this wiki and the videos on YouTube.
  2. So it's a recipe book where people can learn how to make chemicals?
    Definitely not. See the warning on our front page. Chemistry equipment can be dangerous by itself. Many materials (including the ones we work with here) are dangerous: toxic, flammable, corrosive, etc. These operations should not be repeated or reproduced except by people who are sufficiently qualified to do the work and handle the materials safely.
  3. Isn't there a kind of chicken-and-egg problem? What is your equipment made of?
    That's a good point. We assume that the equipment itself (glassware, supports, heat sources, etc) are available at the beginning. The equipment itself may not be naturally occurring, but it's widely available, accessible, and relatively cheap. The purpose of this project is to demonstrate that the process is the important part, not the chemicals you start with. It's the knowledge, not the resources, that enable the science.
  4. There are already too many wikis out there. Why start a new one? (aka Why not just put this information in Wikipedia?)
    1. Aggregating and disseminating this information was the purpose of this project, and wikis are an excellent way to do both of those things, so that part is straightforward.
    2. Wikipedia is specifically not a textbook, guidebook, or instruction manual. That means it isn't appropriate to build out those entries with much of the data in this wiki. To whatever degree it makes sense for both projects, sharing of data is welcomed and encouraged. NB: A lot of the numeric data in this wiki comes directly from either Wikipedia or its underlying sources.

WARNING

ANY pursuit can be dangerous to the inexperienced, unprepared, or incautious. That is definitely the case with the reactions, extractions, and syntheses this project entails. Do not repeat them unless you are sufficiently informed, prepared, and equipped to handle these materials and safely do the work shown.

Online

NOWA-CL at YouTube NOWA-CL at Patreon


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