I'm the Dauphin in France

Chapter 375 The Most Advanced and Most Suitable

Lavoisier saw the prince's eyes glowing with green light and hurriedly explained: "Your Highness, if you only need one or two thousand kilograms of casein glue per month, then you only need to invest 5 livres. But if it is 5 kilograms, then the raw materials such as soda and water glass will be seriously lacking. Oh, at present, all the soda production around Paris is only enough to produce 1 kilograms of casein glue per month.

“So you have to invest in a soda-making factory first, and it’s going to be huge.

"You know, to produce soda, we need to build a reverberatory furnace and a workshop to produce sulfuric acid. This requires at least 80 livres. In addition, we need to produce water glass and purify slaked lime..."

"Wait a minute," Joseph raised his hand to interrupt him, "You just said that the production of soda requires a reverberatory furnace? If I understand correctly, it is the kind of reverberatory furnace used for steelmaking?"

"Yes, Your Highness." Lavoisier nodded, "You may not be familiar with the latest methods of mass-producing soda.

"That's the method that Dr. Lubrand invented not long ago. Salt and sulfuric acid are mixed, and after distillation, limestone and coal are added. Then, the mixture is placed in a reverberatory furnace and calcined into a molten state. This process requires reaching the temperature of melting iron, so the reverberatory furnace is very suitable..."

As he told the story, Joseph finally understood that the mass production of soda in this era still used the calcination and crystallization method.

The high temperature of more than 1000 degrees consumes a huge amount of coal. Moreover, under high temperature, sulfuric acid corrodes the reverberatory furnace severely, and a reverberatory furnace needs to be replaced every two years. It is incredible that the cost is not high!
So for now, soda is still a chemical luxury product. The kind sold by the gram!
No wonder Lavoisier asked him to invest a million livres to build a steel plant, but this money might not be enough.

Joseph immediately remembered, isn't soda just sodium carbonate?

That is soda ash.

As one of the five pillars of the chemical industry, in order to reduce the cost of mass production of this thing, I don’t know how many chemists were driven crazy...

He couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

As expected, all profitable commercial products ultimately rely on the production of the most basic raw materials.

Fortunately, thanks to my roommate in the Chemistry Department, I haven’t returned all my chemistry knowledge to the teacher.

For example, I know the "Hou's alkali making method"!

Doesn’t this easily beat all those “homegrown remedies” you used at the end of the 18th century?
I have not been able to spare the energy to engage in the chemical industry before, so now I will take this opportunity to start with soda ash.

Isn't it just a million livres? If it can boost France's chemical industry, this amount of money is nothing.

Not to mention the importance of soda to the furniture revolution and bulletproof inserts, even if you sell it directly, you can make ten times the profit.

Joseph immediately recalled Hou's process, looked at Lavoisier and said, "In fact, I have a brand new method of producing soda, and the cost should be less than one-tenth of the method you just mentioned."

Lavoisier's eyes widened immediately. If someone else had said this, he would have laughed back immediately. But since it came from the mouth of the "God's Son", he had to think about it seriously.

"Are you serious?"

"Well, it roughly requires salt, ammonia and carbon dioxide." Joseph did not hide it. The "Father of Chemistry" would not steal his technology, or rather, he did not dare to do so. Moreover, he only knew the principle. If he wanted to implement it into the specific mass production process, he had to consult Lavoisier.

"First, pass ammonia gas into saturated salt water to form ammonia salt water. Then pass carbon dioxide into it to produce..."

After he finished explaining Hou's alkali method, he waited for Lavoisier to exclaim. However, after half a minute, the "Father of Chemistry" frowned and shook his head and said, "Your Highness, your method is good, but it seems impossible to implement."

Joseph was stunned. What? Are you sure you heard it clearly? This is Hou's alkali production method!
Lavoisier continued: "Your method requires a lot of ammonia. If I remember correctly, the price of borax seems to be 1 livres per kilogram. The cost of soda produced in this way will not be much lower than that of Dr. Leblanc's method.

"The most important thing is that the supply of borax in the whole of Europe is hardly enough to meet the monthly production of 5 kilograms of casein glue."

Joseph blinked. "Alum? What is it?"

"It's the mineral used to refine ammonia..."

As Lavoisier continued to explain, Joseph's face turned black - borax should be ammonium chloride. The current chemical technology is not able to synthesize ammonia artificially, and it can only be obtained by calcining this expensive mineral.

The price is sky-high again.

Only then did he remember that the process of synthesizing ammonia did not mature until the end of the 19th century. Dr. Hou invented the alkali production method in the 20th century, when ammonia was already very cheap.

As for the synthesis of ammonia, it seems that ultra-high temperature and high pressure reaction technology is needed, which was not even possible in the 18th century...

So, the chemical industry and furniture revolution are just wishful thinking?
Lavoisier saw that he looked strange, and hurriedly comforted him, "Your Highness, your idea is very novel, and that method is something I have never thought of.

"But sometimes the old ways may still work..."

Joseph smiled bitterly. He didn't expect that Dr. Hou's improved alkali production method that shocked the world was not even as good as the reverberatory furnace in the 18th century.

He couldn't help but think of the documentary he had seen about Dr. Hou, how he improved the Solvay process step by step under extremely difficult conditions and finally achieved success.

Ok?
He suddenly thought of something. What was Dr. Hou's improvement? It seemed to be joint alkali production - producing soda ash and fertilizer at the same time, which increased output and raw material utilization.

How is the Solvay process for producing alkali produced?

Joseph desperately recalled the documentaries he had watched before, muttering to himself: "Salt plus ammonia plus carbon dioxide, dissolved in water. Remove the sediment, add limestone, heat and react...

"Ammonia and carbon dioxide are generated, while the sintered product contains soda ash and calcium chloride, which are then purified through crystallization...

"This alkali production method wastes the chlorine in the salt and the calcium in the limestone, so the production efficiency and cost are not as good as Hou's alkali production method..."

Joseph suddenly paused and said, "Wait a minute, ammonia and carbon dioxide are precipitated during the reaction and can be added back into the next reaction!"
In this way, the consumption of ammonia will be very, very small. Although there is no fertilizer output like Hou's, it bypasses the natural barrier of ammonia.

fine……

He suddenly breathed a sigh of relief. He really fell into a misunderstanding. He always wanted to use the most advanced technology. But the most advanced technology may not be suitable for this era!

"Mr. Lavoisier," he smiled again, "If I have a method that does not require the consumption of ammonia, please help me design a mass production process."

Lavoisier's eyes suddenly widened. Was the prince really inspired by God? !
He came up with two plans for producing soda in less than half an hour, which was such a cutting-edge technology! !
(End of this chapter)