# At Home Hydrogenation



## donniej (Jan 23, 2010)

I know.... "why?" you ask...  Because I can  8) 

After extensive research, I found that you need nickel catalyst, hydrogen gas, heat and oil.  ~20psi, ~350*F and .1% catalyst by weight of oil.  Mix for 2 or 3 hours and hopefully you end up with mostly stearic acid, like crisco or lard.  

The first hurdle was that nickel catalyst isn't easy to buy, so I had to make it.  Take a little nickel sulfate and dissolve it in hot water, do the same with some sodium carbonate.  I guess you could use wash soda but I ordered some lab grade stuff, I don't think it's much purer though (titrations were very close).  Mix the nickel sulfate solution with the sodium carbonate solution and it precipitates a light green powder.  This is nickel carbonate, the catalyst.  All this was done in mason jars, pretty easy.  

The next trick was to get some hydrogen.  I tried hooking a car battery charger to some stainless steel plates and put them in water, but this is *very* slow.  Then I remembered that if you mix lye/water with aluminum that it makes *lots* of hydrogen.  Next step is to pick up an air compressor tank to do this in.  I also gutted an old window air conditioner that was in the trash for the compressor.  If need be I can use this to pressurize the hydrogen into the "reaction vessel".  

I figure I can keep it at 350*F by heating a pot of oil on the stove and keeping it in the pot.  

Be sure to keep an eye on this thread, I should have an update in a week or two.  Wish me luck


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## IanT (Jan 23, 2010)

donniej said:
			
		

> I know.... "why?" you ask...  Because I can  8)
> 
> After extensive research, I found that you need nickel catalyst, hydrogen gas, heat and oil.  ~20psi, ~350*F and .1% catalyst by weight of oil.  Mix for 2 or 3 hours and hopefully you end up with mostly stearic acid, like crisco or lard.
> 
> ...



that is so aswesome! I love your experiments!...keep us posted!...got any pics!?!? I have never heard of someone tryingn to hydrogenate something at home... so this is cool .

How do you incorporate the air compressor tank to "do it in" not sure if I understand that... like are you fitting it with gaskets/tubing etc that injects the hydrogen into the compressor?

just be careful it doesnt blow... could be quite scary!


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## donniej (Jan 23, 2010)

The compressor tank is to make the hydrogen gas.  That will be done by shredding aluminum soda cans or aluminum foil and putting them in the tank.  The tank will then be closed and the air sucked with a vacuum pump (to avoid contamination).  The lye water will then be sucked into the tank, which is easy because it's already a vacuum.  

The reaction of the aluminum with the lye will create hydrogen gas under pressure, and with a lot of heat.  After the heat (and steam) have died down, I'll pipe the hydrogen gas into the "reaction vessel" (which will also be under a vacuum).

The reaction vessel will probably be a piece of 2" water pipe with a temp gauge on one end and a valve on the other.


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## IanT (Jan 23, 2010)

how do you keep the compressor tank from exploding with all the pressure buildup of the hydrogen?

sooo kewl


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## donniej (Jan 23, 2010)

by watching a pressure gauge and opening a valve as pressure gets too high.


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## IanT (Jan 23, 2010)

donniej said:
			
		

> by watching a pressure gauge and opening a valve as pressure gets too high.



ahaaaa a blowoff valve!! very clever... you are one sharp cookie 

cant wait to see more!


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## donniej (Mar 12, 2010)

I made a little progress yesterday.... I had some time to spare so I got to work on the hydrogen generator.  I used a 5 gallon "Cornelius keg", which is a stainless steel keg used in soda fountains to carbonate soda.  I added places to hook up gauges and valves and hooked it all up.  

It uses water, lye and aluminum foil.  In the 5 gallon keg, approximately 3 ounces of water, 1 ounce of lye and 1 ounce aluminum foil were added.  I couldn't find my thermometer but it got hot, *very* hot.  Probably hotter than boiling.  Then the gauge started to rise, slowly up to 60psi... which for point of refference, a pressure cooker goes up to 15psi and the air in your cars tires is 35psi.  I let it cool for a while and tried to fill a trash bag with the hydrogen, unfortunately it was only enough to fill a large trash bag about 1/3 full.  The gas was also full of steam and probably some lye.  The next step if to add a wash system to clean the gas.  

By the way, this is why you never use aluminum with soap making


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## IanT (Mar 12, 2010)

cooooooool


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## xyxoxy (Mar 13, 2010)

Don't try this at home kids... unless you are donniej


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## ChrissyB (Mar 13, 2010)

You boggle me Donnie J. You're like a mad scientist or something~


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## gekko62 (Mar 14, 2010)

ChrissyB said:
			
		

> You boggle me Donnie J. You're like a mad scientist or something~



Or _something_?? lol. The Doc Brown of SMF  8)


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## IanT (Mar 14, 2010)

gekko62 said:
			
		

> ChrissyB said:
> 
> 
> 
> ...



I concur


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