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Old 10-26-2018, 08:06 AM   #19
Anaraxes
 
Join Date: Sep 2007
Default Re: [AtE] Black Powder vs Smokeless

Quote:
Originally Posted by Luke Bunyip View Post
Might learn how to get sulphur out of plasterboard.
Well, my search was worth it just for the amusement value. I found one site with a simple four-step process:

1) Roast the gypsum in an oven to drive off the water from the hydrated crystals. Sure, no problem.

2) Heat the gypsum in a kiln (600-900 C) in the presence of a reducing atmosphere like hydrogen or carbon monoxide. Hm, okay, still doable. We can get a kiln. Potters are a thing.

3) "Employ a catalyst made up of vanadium pentoxide and an alkali metal sulfate supported on small silica beads at high temperature."
Yes, my scavengers of the Wasteland, desperate enough to try mixing their own black powder, will just whip up some vanadium pentoxide. Or maybe just order it online from Fisher Scientific. At least they've got plenty of sand to make some silica beads (as long as those don't have to be particularly pure or uniform)...

4) Reduce the sulfur dioxide to sulfur.
Which the US Dept of Energy suggests doing with a cerium oxide catalyst, handy if you used CO for your reducing atmosphere as it aids a redox reaction to turn that and the SO2 into sulfur and carbon dioxide. I think you'll probably find the cerium right next to the vanadium in those rusting wrecks along the desert highways.
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