Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 274 Deepening the Roots ([-])

The weather in Ping'an Town in December has gradually started to warm up, and a new factory has begun to take shape in Jushu Township (formerly Jushu Village) in the north of Ping'an County (Ping'an Town).Due to the successive settlement of the Northern Gunpowder Factory and the extremely important No. [-] chemical plant in the new plan, this northern rural area, which was originally dominated by agriculture and only had a small canned fruit processing factory, suddenly poured in hundreds of people. The resident population, as well as a larger number of South African construction team laborers.

After the population surge, Qian Hao, the magistrate of Ping'an County, simply applied to the Government Administration Council to withdraw Jushu Village and establish it as a township, which was approved a few days ago.After the successful establishment of Jushu Township, the jurisdiction of Ping'an County has included Ping'an Town, Meihe Township, and Jushu Township. Both the scale and the output value of industry and agriculture have begun to catch up with Dongfang County in the south, and its weight in the minds of the Executive Committee is becoming more and more substantial.

At present, Song Qiang, the director of the Institute of Chemistry of the Academy of Natural Sciences, is the director of the newly established No. [-] chemical plant in Jushu Township. The main product of the plant at this stage is sulfuric acid.Yes, you read that right, after delaying for many days and solving a series of pre-problems, the production of sulfuric acid, an extremely important basic chemical raw material, can finally enter the substantive operation stage.

Since last year, with the gradual deepening of the domestic industrialization process, various industries (such as papermaking, printing and dyeing, textiles, etc.) have generated considerable demand for sulfuric acid.For this reason, several chemistry teachers from the Academy of Natural Sciences led a group of students to start an attempt to industrialize the production of sulfuric acid.

Although a large amount of concentrated sulfuric acid has been successfully prepared in the laboratory, industrial production and laboratory preparation are two completely different concepts.This group of people first began to study acid-resistant materials, namely acid-resistant bricks and acid-resistant cement.The research on acid-resistant cement has not made much progress yet, but acid-resistant bricks have been successfully fired.After more than half a year of research and trial production, the technicians of Henan Glass Factory and Building Materials Factory have successfully fired a batch of acid-resistant bricks with a silica content of up to 70% a few months ago. After testing, they are resistant to various inorganic strong acids. They are all very strong and can be used in the industrial production of sulfuric acid.

The main equipment, production lines and factory buildings of the factory were all designed by Song Qiang.In order to show its importance, the Government Administration Council even ordered the Ministry of Communications' most technically powerful and experienced Construction Bureau (currently a total of five bureaus) to undertake the construction, in order to ensure the quality of the entire factory construction and equipment installation.

Song Qiang himself has never been engaged in the sulfuric acid production industry, and his impression of the early sulfuric acid production methods only exists in the articles on the local production of sulfuric acid that he has seen in a certain magazine.However, this did not prevent him and several colleagues from working together to gradually restore the production steps of industrial sulfuric acid production through discussions and experiments.

The main production equipment of the first chemical plant is seven production towers, which are the first to fourth generation towers, the oxidation tower and the first and second absorption towers. device.

The raw materials for making sulfuric acid are sulfur and nitric acid prepared in some laboratories.Elemental sulfur (or metal sulfide, such as pyrite, etc.) is burned in the incinerator, and the generated furnace gas (including sulfur dioxide accounts for about 7%) passes through the dust removal chamber and enters the bottom of the first generation tower, and is sprayed from the top. The down nitric acid (containing nitrosyl sulfuric acid HNSO5) meets.Under the action of high temperature of furnace gas, nitrosyl sulfuric acid is hydrolyzed and denitrated to generate sulfuric acid (H2SO4) and many nitrogen oxides (nitrogen trioxide N2O3).

These nitrogen oxides have strong oxidizing properties, and can oxidize sulfur dioxide (SO2) to sulfur trioxide (SO3), and sulfur trioxide can react with water to generate sulfuric acid, releasing a lot of heat at the same time.

In the oxidation process, a large amount of nitrogen oxides (NO) is generated again, and NO can react with oxygen to generate nitrogen dioxide (NO2) again.It can be seen from this that the oxides of nitrogen such as nitric oxide and nitrogen dioxide are actually just a catalyst, and they are constantly generating new ones while being consumed, which can be recycled.In the process, sulfuric acid is also continuously generated.

The furnace gas (approximately 40% of the sulfur dioxide has been reacted) from the first generation tower passes through the following three sulfuric acid generation towers and then enters the oxidation tower. At this time, most of the sulfur dioxide has been reacted, and the remaining gas is mainly The composition is NO. NO is partially oxidized, then enters the first and second absorption towers behind, and is absorbed by the sulfuric acid showered from the top of the tower to generate nitrosyl sulfuric acid, thereby realizing the recovery and utilization of nitrogen oxides.The final exhaust gas enters the chimney after passing through the sanitary tower and mist catcher, and is discharged into the atmosphere.

The entire production process is ingeniously designed to realize circular production and repeated use.Among them, the sulfuric acid from the first generation tower has been denitrified, and after cooling, it is exported through pipelines, part of which is used as finished products, and part of which is used as shower acid for the following two towers (the first and second absorption towers).The acid (including nitrosulfuric acid) from the first and second absorption towers can also be used as the shower acid of the previous towers (the first, second, third, and fourth generating towers). The whole process realizes cyclic production.

In this production line, Song Qiang and others gave full play to their ingenuity and wisdom, and did not copy the European lead chamber method and tower method to produce sulfuric acid in the 18th and 19th centuries, but made bold improvements based on the actual situation. , the overall technology has reached the level of the early 20th century.For example, the dust removal room is a design that did not exist in Europe, and the pipeline for heating the furnace gas (to maintain the temperature of the furnace gas) is also a design that did not exist in Europe.

The core equipment "tower" of the production line is made of acid-resistant brick powder and fired in a kiln as a whole. It is in the shape of a cylinder and placed on the ground.There are fillers at the bottom, which are acid-resistant glass balls, quartz blocks, coke, etc. This is to increase the reaction area.At the top of the tower is an acid shower basin, which is also made of acid-resistant materials.There are some small holes at the bottom of the acid shower basin to allow the acid shower to leak into the tower.

In the early production process of the Europeans, they always asked workers to carry a large bucket full of acid to pour sulfuric acid into the acid basin. During this process, the acid was easily splashed, causing accidents.In Song Qiang's design, he boldly adopted the principle of siphon to design an automatic acid adding device.

That is, a large acid bottle filled with acid liquid with a pipe at the bottom leading directly into the acid shower basin was placed on a high place next to the acid shower basin, and another pipe hung down from the top of the big acid bottle.When the acid-adding worker comes with the acid barrel, he only needs to connect the pipe hanging from the top of the acid bottle to the bottom of the acid liquid in the acid barrel, and then open the pipe from the acid bottle to the acid shower basin.After the acid liquid in the acid bottle enters the shower basin, the liquid level of the acid liquid in the acid bottle drops. Maintain a certain height, so as to realize automatic acid addition.

The design of the sanitary tower and mist catcher is even more unique.You must know that the sulfuric acid production workshops in early Europe were really a serious source of pollution, and they were often forced to relocate due to protests from residents near the factory. Tail gas (a small amount of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen monoxide and acid mist) is treated.In Song Qiang’s design, the tail gas must first enter the sanitation tower before being discharged into the atmosphere. Concentrated sulfuric acid is placed in the sanitation tower to absorb sulfur dioxide and nitrogen monoxide in the tail gas; the remaining tail gas enters the mist trap The acid mist is absorbed in a container (a closed container filled with coke), and the final gas is discharged into the atmosphere through a chimney.The chimney here should be made as high as possible to extract air.

Before the sanitation tower, someone in the Institute of Chemistry proposed whether to install a steam exhaust fan to maintain negative pressure inside the first few towers, so that the gas can pass through each tower in order, and finally enter the sanitation tower and the rear of the mist catcher into the atmosphere.After thinking about it for a while, Song Qiang felt that the idea was good, so he decisively followed suit and added this design.

The six cylindrical "towers" have a diameter of 1.2 meters and a height of 1 meter. After the construction is completed and put into actual production, it is estimated that about 1 ton of finished sulfuric acid can be produced every day, and the purity will be above 70%.If the entire production process is well controlled, sulfuric acid with a purity of about 75% can be produced.These sulfuric acids will also be taken to the steaming and concentrating workshop next door for cooking to produce concentrated sulfuric acid that can be used in industrial production.

The entire sulfuric acid production process and process all rely on the existing technology and industrial level, and take into account the economic benefits, that is, abandon the expensive lead chamber method (and the lead chamber method will produce a lot of impurities), and almost all the equipment is made of not very good It is made of valuable red brick refractory bricks (incinerator), acid-resistant powder (reaction tower), glass (acid bottle), etc., and the cost is unbelievably low.

With the presence of concentrated sulfuric acid, the chemical industry of the East Coast Republic of China can be regarded as truly opened up.Since then, salt chemical industry (reaction of sodium chloride and concentrated sulfuric acid to produce hydrochloric acid and sodium sulfate) can be gradually developed, and the feasibility of small-scale industrial production of nitric acid (reaction of potassium nitrate and concentrated sulfuric acid) has gradually entered the chemical industry. Help the technician inside the eyelid.

All in all, whether the sulfuric acid production line of the first chemical plant is successfully put into operation or not has a profound impact on the industrial development of the East Coast Republic of China, and it is self-evident that it will promote the country's industrial upgrading and industrial progress.After all, only the development and progress of heavy industry can represent the progress of a country's industrial level, and basic chemicals such as three acids and two alkalis are one of the foundations of heavy industry, and the development of these industries is a major event that deeply consolidates the foundation of a country's industry.

(End of this chapter)