Western border, border town.
The washing stones purchased from Silver Light City filled four ships, and it took several days just to unload them.
Now that there are sufficient raw materials, the soap production plan should officially be put on the agenda.
The supporting factory and warehouse have already been set up. The soap factory is located next to the industrial park, next to the No. 2 steam assembly plant, and the shape is exactly the same. The roof, beams, and wall panels are all made of wood, which is a little smaller in size, and the witches are responsible for cutting and hoisting the wood, so the construction period took only one week.
Using washing stones, or trona, to make soap is essentially a series of chemical reactions. The raw materials required are also very common. In addition to soda ash, a large amount of lime milk and grease are also required. The milk of lime is the suspension liquid deposited at the bottom of the container after lime is immersed in water, which is used to react with soda ash to generate caustic soda, and then the caustic soda reacts with oil to generate higher fatty acid salts and glycerin. The former is even soap, while the latter is an extremely important raw material for explosives.
When making soap, Roland had already tested the entire reaction process in the backyard of the castle. The principle is basically the same, but to expand a small amount of trial production into mass production, it is still necessary to formulate reasonable processes and specifications, and more importantly, professional chemical talents are needed to guide production.
To this end, he called the chief alchemist into the office.
"His Royal Highness, I have already thought of a possible plan for the large-scale production of sulfuric acid you requested." As soon as he entered the door, Kemer Strell shouted loudly, "But this requires a lot of lead, and making lead into The blacksmith of the container, I heard that one of your witches can cut metal accurately, and she made those rumbling iron lumps, can I…”
"Of course, report to me the shape and size of the container you requested, and I will let the Witch Union do it," Roland motioned for him to sit down, "I came to you today not for acid production, but for another task. ."
"His Royal Highness, I really don't have time for other things recently," Kaimo shook his head repeatedly. "Large-scale acid production is a daunting challenge, and I must do my best." He paused and added. , "Not even the disciples. They are all helping me to prepare this matter, and none of them can leave."
"Don't worry, it won't take you much time," Roland took a sip of tea, "and you don't need to assign your proud disciple to take charge, just a few apprentices."
"Then... what's the mission?"
"Making soap is a cheap version of soap in the convenience market. Except for the taste, it functions exactly like soap. It can be used for bathing, washing clothes, and cleaning tableware."
"Is it the saponification reaction mentioned in "Elementary Chemistry"?" Kemo stroked his beard and said, "The one that uses sodium hydroxide and oil to react to form alcohol and salt?"
I have to say that hearing standard chemical nouns from an alchemist is a very strange feeling, especially since this word was created by oneself. Roland held back his smile and nodded solemnly, "Yes, it is the saponification reaction recorded in ancient books. I also figured out how to make soap based on it."
"Then what do you need me to do? If it's not very important, I'd recommend giving birth later. After all, it's fine for your territorial people not to take a bath for a few days. Clothes and dinner plates, etc., are directly soaked in the river water. Just soak it."
"It's very important," the prince stressed. "Or, it's not important to make soap, but the by-products of the production process are what I desperately need right now."
"You mean... alcohol?" Kaimo said disapprovingly.
"Yes, it is alcohol, you can also call it glycerin." Roland said, "It is an extremely important raw material, and its significance is no less than two acids."
"Okay," Kemer Strell shrugged, "but I don't have time to implement it myself."
He sighed softly, dealing with the chief alchemist was really tiring, "You just need to pick out a few clever apprentices and demonstrate it in front of them. I will recruit some subjects for production, but they After all, I don't know anything about chemistry, so someone has to check all the links." The prince paused for a moment, "You can also treat it as a chemical experiment that has never been practiced before. If you put it in the alchemy workshop, this process can mean several alchemy. The discovery of the formula is enough to earn an apprentice the title of alchemist."
It was probably the last sentence that persuaded Kaimo, "If that's the case, I'll take an afternoon to teach the apprentice what you've assigned."
"Very well," Roland smiled slightly, "you should also know that the most important thing in the production process is to obtain a sufficient amount of sodium hydroxide," he wrote down the reaction formula on paper. Before the synthetic alkali process was invented, trona was The most important raw material for alkali production, the main component of the latter is sodium bicarbonate, which can be decomposed into sodium carbonate, carbon dioxide and water by heating. Because of the abundant raw materials and simple process, it is still used until modern times. "The washing stone is heated and decomposed, dissolved in water, and filtered to obtain a relatively pure sodium carbonate solution."
"Then use it to co-heat with lime milk to get a sodium hydroxide solution, and you should be able to purify it easily," he explained as he writes, "clarification, distillation, mixing, and repeating this process until the solution concentration A large amount of crystals can be precipitated after cooling.”
These are the contents involved in "Elementary Chemistry". Due to the numerous nicknames of the two alkalis, they are easily confused (such as caustic soda, caustic soda, soda ash, big soda, baking soda, soda, etc.), and they are also important knowledge points in the exam. At the beginning, I have recited the relevant content of the textbook, so I still remember it clearly.
"I understand," the chief alchemist read the reaction formula from start to finish, "but, Your Highness, what about the grease?"
"I will arrange for someone to send these materials to you." Animal fats are still expensive in this era, but after the last visit to the guard's seed procurement trip brought olive tree seeds from Zhuolongling, Border Town There is a reliable source of vegetable oil. Although it is currently only planted on a small scale in the backyard of the castle, with the ripening ability of the leaves, it is not a problem to harvest a bunch of fruits in one day.
The extraction of olive oil is also very simple. After the fruit is mature, physical cold pressing can be used to produce oil, and then the debris and slag are filtered through the filter to obtain clear oil.
Finally, after briefly explaining the production of soap and the requirement to retain glycerin, Roland asked Camer Strell to leave the office.
In this way, when the soap factory started, he would have a stable source of glycerin.
And with glycerin, it means that the real smokeless propellant and powerful explosives are also not far from him. (., Your support is my biggest motivation.)