. , THESIS: THE RECOVERY OF AMMONIA FROM WASTE ORGANIC SUBSTANCES, - B Y — FRANK H. GAZZOLO, F of trie Degree of Bachelor of Science in College of Science. UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS. 1896. ” R E C 0 V E R Y OF A M M 0 N I A FRO M WASTE ORGANIC MATTER." Introduction, Of late years, the immense development of chemical industries can only he accoionted for hy the great advances made in general chemistry,---- particularly in the perfection of .analytical chemistry. It is through scientific research that so many avenues o f industry have been opened. Theoretical and practical chemistry are working side by side to devise means to further the industries and in proportion as chemical knowledge progresses, the technolo­ gies advance. As a natural consequence, the growth of the chemical' industries gave rise to numerous questions as to the technical working. Men are striving to answer these innumer­ able questions by investigation and experimenting, and through these means are due the great advances of chemical technol­ ogy of recent years. The desire to obtain a clear understand­ ing of the original as well as the final products have placed the chemical industries upon a sound chemical basis. ............. ■ ■ ■ ■■■ ............... — ----------------------....................... .........- ......- ............ • ■ ....-.... .......... ... — It is to this desire that scientific chemistry owes so much to technology, fo r much o f the work done in pure chemistry is in response to the demands made upon chemists by the exigencies of the manufactures. It is thus seen that if scientific chemistry has proved itself so necessary for tech­ n ic a l, the la tt e r has likew ise done a great deal to advance the former. In these days of close competition and strict econ­ omy, the question of utilizing the waste products becomes of vital importance. ■ In former years the by-products were absolutely wasted. We may take fo r example tar — i t was in a sense a ■ waste-product obtained from the destructive distillation of coal. Now, by means of refined chemical processes, the most valuable dye-stuffs are produced from it. There is no industry 'which possibly better illustrates the practical good that comes from scientific chemical researches than that of coal-tar. It was clearly proved here that pure chemical work was necessary for the development of every branch of the whole coal-tar industry. Hoffman's researches upon aniline and its deriva­ tives, rosaline and its derivatives are classical. Eando Fischer did notable work in establishing the constitution of 4 these compounds. The discovery of the green dyes from oil of It bitter almonds and benzo-trichloride by o. Fischer and Dobner may be mentioned. The first aniline dye produced on a tech­ nical scale was violet prepared by Perkins in 1856. Chemical research has given us a valuable dye ---- - a liza rin e ---- which.was formerly prepared entirely from the madder root, but is now practically obtained from coal-tar. The important a lk a li and acid industries are depen­ dent solely upon chemical theories. Through the e ffo r ts o f chemical research, a g ric u l­ ture is now recognized as a science. Metallurgy, mineralogy and geology nave reached their present plane mainly through chemical research. The manufacture o f s p ir its has been helped to it s present state through chemical work. The manufacture of or­ ganic acids has reached a plane of no little importance. The above illustrations are sufficient to indicate how enormous have been the benefits which chemical research has conferred upon technology. The desire to waste no material of any possible value is also shown in the process of manufacturing illumin­ ating gas; besides the production of tar, the ammonia liquor is carefully collected. The main supply of ammonia of com- merce is from th is source. Since i t is a by-product, the cost of collecting is comparatively slight. But since the introduction of other systems of lighting, the demand for gas has yearly grown less and less, and as a natural conse­ quence the production of this by-product has also diminished considerably. Ammonia is a compound that has grown in importance more and more, both in technical work and in domestic economy. A large per cent of ammonia is used in the production of arti­ ficia l cold. The salts of ammonia are none the less valuable. The production o f ammonia soda and o f a r t i f i c i a l manures has grown so enormously o f la te years that the demand fo r ammonia sa lts has immensely increased, but th is requirement has in its turn been met by the introduction of improved apparatus for working up of gas liquor. Here again the advances in this branch of manufacture are due to chemical investigation. The demand fo r ammonia just about equals the supply and as the chief source of it is rapidly, diminishing, some means must be devised to produce ammonia abundantly from ni­ trogenous substances. Teclinical Sources of Ammonia; 1. Natural occurence o f aramonical compounds. Ammonium carbonate in guano deposits. 2. Ammonia made from hydrogen and atmospheric n i­ trogen. Numerous patents have been taken out on processes. A patent was issued in 1880 to Rickman and Thompson fo r the manufacture of ammonia from the nitrogen of the air and hy­ drogen of water. For the last 20 years (1880) the manufacture of ammonia has "been several times attempted, though in every attempt i t is-probable that ammonia has been made, yet never on a commercial scale. In all these attempts, the process has been to combine the nitrogen and hydrogen directly at a low heat and receive the ammonia in water, or by substitution, first forming a cyanide at a higher heat and then indirectly producing ammonia by the decomposition of the cyanide, the result in both cases being ammonia in solution in water. Rickman and Thompson procedure is altogeth er d i f f ­ erent. They produce ammonia chloride direct and either in dry powder or in solution and this by the simplest means and by the use of simple apparatus and inexpensive material. They do not use re to rts , as has been done in a l l other cases, but simply a closed brick furnace having the ash pit closed to regulate the supply of air and they cause the vapor of water to be produced by the waste heat of the furnace itself. The deoxidizing material actually used is the waste heat of the furna c e it self/. The deoxidizing material actually used is the dust o f steam coal which costs only a few cents a ton at the p its ; to th is is added from 5 to 8 per cent, of common salt, and the coal dust is the only fuel used except at the beginning of the operation. The great d iffic u lt y in making ammonia from nascent hydrogen of water and the nitrogen of the air is the restricted lim its of temperature between generation and de­ composition. It being necessary that a carbon, in whatever form used, should be a fu ll reo. heat to decompose the vapor o f water, but at a bright red heat, ammonia is decomposed. Now, ammonia chloride under the same conditions is simply volatilized and not decomposed. As chloride of sod­ ium or ol calcium is decomposed at a fu ll red heat in pre­ sence of nascent ammonia, therefore one of tie se salts (chlo­ ride) is mixed, with coal that ammonium chloride may be form­ ed, so uiao if by chance the heat should be raised to a bright rea no loss is sustained. The NH^Cl is simply vola­ tilized. By those t ie ans a greater range of wo iking tompera- ttue is obtained. At present (1880) wiih the consumption o f 20 to 28 lbs. of mixture of cold dust and salt per hour from 2 to 3 lbs. of NH^Cl is formed. 3. Ammonia made from cyanides, prepared by means of atmospheric nitrogen. 4. Ammonia from urine, sewage and animal excreta. 5. Ammonia from guano. 6 . Bones, horn, leather and other animal substanc­ es; by subjecting them to dry distillation. 7. Ammonia formed in inorganic chemical manufact­ ures. 8 . Ammonia is a by-product in the manufacture of beet-sugar. 9. From peat; 10. Ammonia from bituminous shale. 1 1 . " " coal. Of a ll the technical sources o f ammonia the most practical as well as the one almost entirely used is the ammonical gas-liquor from the desctuctive distillation of coal, a1 enough considerable ammonia can be obtained from bones , leather ard hair. The object cf this thesis is to devise a method or an improvement to recover as much ammonia as is possible from any nitrogenous substance. Hail who slaughter houses is absolutely wasted _ _______________________________________ _ ________________________ ___________ and can "be had for almost the asking. Other wasted product of the slaughter houses can he obtained as cheaply. By the destructive distillation of these animal substances there is obtained a series cf products among which ammonia carbonate p reva ils. It is evident that the quantity of ammonia in the products o f dry d is tilla tio n o f animal substances depends upon the kind aid conditions of these materials and upon the temperature at which the operation takes place. At the pre­ sent time the manufacture of ammonia and its salts from the products of the dry distilla tion of animal substances is a matter of but limited importance.