West, a frontier town. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

The washing stones purchased from Silverlight City filled four boats, and it took several days to unload them.

Now that there are enough raw materials, it's time for the soap production plan to be officially put on the agenda.

The accompanying factory and warehouse have already been erected – the soap factory is located next to the industrial park, next to the steam assembly plant No. 2, and is identical. The roof, beams and wall panels were made of wood, smaller in size, and the wood was cut and hoisted by witches, so the construction took only a week.

The use of washing stones, or trona, to make soap is essentially a series of chemical reactions. The raw materials required are also very common, and in addition to soda ash, large amounts of lime milk and oil are required. Among them, lime milk is a suspension that soaks lime in water and presettles at the bottom of the container, which is used to react with soda ash to generate caustic soda, and then reacts with oil by caustic soda to generate high-grade fatty acid salts and glycerin. The former is even soap, while the latter is an extremely important raw material for explosives.

When making soap before, Roland had already experimented with the entire reaction process in the castle's backyard. The principle is basically the same, but in order to expand a small number of trial production to mass production, it is still necessary to formulate reasonable processes and specifications, and more importantly, professional chemical personnel are needed to guide production.

To do this, he summoned the chief alchemist into the office.

"Your Highness, you have requested a large-scale production of sulfuric acid, and I have already thought of a plan that may work. "But it takes a lot of lead, and a blacksmith who makes it into containers, and I heard that one of your witches can cut metal accurately, and that she made the rumbling lumps of iron, can I ......?"

"Of course, report me the shape and size of the container you requested, and I'll let the Witches do it," Roland beckoned him to sit down, "I'm not here today to make acid, but for another mission." ”

"Your Highness, I really can't spare time for anything else lately," Kemo shook his head repeatedly, "Large-scale acid production is a difficult challenge, and I must do my best. He paused, then added, "Neither can the disciples, they are all assisting me in preparing this matter, and none of them can leave." ”

"Don't worry, it won't take much of your time," Roland took a sip of tea, "There is no need to transfer your proud disciples to be in charge, just a few apprentices." ”

"That'...... What is the mission?"

"Making soap is a cheap version of soap in the convenience market, except for the taste, it has the same function as soap, and can be used for bathing, washing clothes, and cleaning dishes. ”

"Is it the saponification reaction mentioned in "Elementary Chemistry"?" said Kemo as he touched his beard, "the one that reacts sodium hydroxide with grease to produce alcohol and salt?"

I have to say that it is a very strange feeling to hear the standard chemical term from the mouth of an alchemist, especially since this word is still made up by himself. Roland held back a smile and nodded solemnly, "That's right, it's the saponification reaction recorded in the ancient books." It was also based on this that I figured out how to make soap. ”

"So what do you need me to do? If it's not very important, I'd suggest putting it back in production later. After all, even if your people don't take a shower for a few days, they can just soak in the river with their clothes and plates. ”

"It's very important," the prince emphasized, "or rather, it's not important to make soap, but the by-products of the production process are something I need so badly at the moment." ”

"You mean...... Mellow?" Kemo said disapprovingly.

"That's right, it's alcohol, you can also call it glycerin. "It's an extremely important ingredient, and it's as important as two acids." ”

"Well," said Kemo Stowler, shrugging, "but well, I don't have time to do it myself." ”

He exhaled softly, dealing with the chief alchemist was really tiring, "You just need to pick out a few clever apprentices and demonstrate them in front of them." I'm going to recruit some people to do the production, but they don't know anything about chemistry after all, so someone has to take care of everything. The prince paused slightly, "You can also think of it as a chemical experiment that has never been practiced before - if placed in an alchemy workshop, this process can mean the discovery of several alchemical formulas, enough for an apprentice to earn the title of alchemist." ”

It was probably the last sentence that convinced Kemo, "In that 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 produce a sufficient amount of sodium hydroxide," he wrote down the reaction formula on paper - before the invention of the synthetic alkali process, trona was the most important raw material for alkali production, the latter is mainly composed of sodium bicarbonate, which can be decomposed into sodium carbonate, carbon dioxide and water by heating, because of the abundance of raw materials and the simple process, so it is still used until modern times. "By heating and decomposing, dissolving water and filtering the washing stone, a relatively pure sodium carbonate solution can be obtained. ”

"Next, you can use it to coheat with lime milk to get a sodium hydroxide solution, and you should easily think of a purification method," he explains as he writes, "clarifying, distilling, mixing, and repeating this step until the concentration of the solution can be precipitated in large quantities after cooling." ”

These are the contents involved in "Elementary Chemistry", due to the many nicknames of the two alkalis, it is easy to confuse (such as caustic soda, caustic soda, soda ash, baking soda, baking soda, baking soda, soda, etc.), and it is an important knowledge point in the exam.

"I see," the chief alchemist read the reaction from beginning to end, "but Your Highness, what about the grease?"

"I'll arrange for someone to send you these materials. "Animal fats and fats were still expensive in those days, but after Qinwei's seed sourcing trip brought olive tree seeds from Shenlong Ridge, the border town has a reliable source of vegetable oil. Although it is currently only grown on a small scale in the castle's backyard, it has the ability to ripen the leaves, and harvesting a bunch of fruit a day is not a problem.

The extraction of olive oil is also very simple, after the fruit is ripe, the oil can be produced by physical cold pressing, and then filtered through the filter to remove debris and slag, and clear oil can be obtained.

After a brief explanation of the soap and the requirements for glycerin, Roland asked Camer Stoll to leave the office.

As a result, when the soap factory was opened, he had a steady supply of glycerin.

And with glycerin, it means that real smokeless propellant * charges and powerful explosives are also not far from him. (To be continued.) )