donniej
Well-Known Member
I know.... "why?" you ask... Because I can 8)
After extensive research, I found that you need nickel catalyst, hydrogen gas, heat and oil. ~20psi, ~350*F and .1% catalyst by weight of oil. Mix for 2 or 3 hours and hopefully you end up with mostly stearic acid, like crisco or lard.
The first hurdle was that nickel catalyst isn't easy to buy, so I had to make it. Take a little nickel sulfate and dissolve it in hot water, do the same with some sodium carbonate. I guess you could use wash soda but I ordered some lab grade stuff, I don't think it's much purer though (titrations were very close). Mix the nickel sulfate solution with the sodium carbonate solution and it precipitates a light green powder. This is nickel carbonate, the catalyst. All this was done in mason jars, pretty easy.
The next trick was to get some hydrogen. I tried hooking a car battery charger to some stainless steel plates and put them in water, but this is *very* slow. Then I remembered that if you mix lye/water with aluminum that it makes *lots* of hydrogen. Next step is to pick up an air compressor tank to do this in. I also gutted an old window air conditioner that was in the trash for the compressor. If need be I can use this to pressurize the hydrogen into the "reaction vessel".
I figure I can keep it at 350*F by heating a pot of oil on the stove and keeping it in the pot.
Be sure to keep an eye on this thread, I should have an update in a week or two. Wish me luck
After extensive research, I found that you need nickel catalyst, hydrogen gas, heat and oil. ~20psi, ~350*F and .1% catalyst by weight of oil. Mix for 2 or 3 hours and hopefully you end up with mostly stearic acid, like crisco or lard.
The first hurdle was that nickel catalyst isn't easy to buy, so I had to make it. Take a little nickel sulfate and dissolve it in hot water, do the same with some sodium carbonate. I guess you could use wash soda but I ordered some lab grade stuff, I don't think it's much purer though (titrations were very close). Mix the nickel sulfate solution with the sodium carbonate solution and it precipitates a light green powder. This is nickel carbonate, the catalyst. All this was done in mason jars, pretty easy.
The next trick was to get some hydrogen. I tried hooking a car battery charger to some stainless steel plates and put them in water, but this is *very* slow. Then I remembered that if you mix lye/water with aluminum that it makes *lots* of hydrogen. Next step is to pick up an air compressor tank to do this in. I also gutted an old window air conditioner that was in the trash for the compressor. If need be I can use this to pressurize the hydrogen into the "reaction vessel".
I figure I can keep it at 350*F by heating a pot of oil on the stove and keeping it in the pot.
Be sure to keep an eye on this thread, I should have an update in a week or two. Wish me luck