Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Finally a simple method for the realitive purification of NOS

kafka - 2-8-2006 at 21:03

Well im not sure how much everyone here will respect this, im sure at least someone will...

two older friends of mine have spent many years working on the ulitmite method for home purification of racing grade nitrous oxide "nitrous plus." It contains technical grade N2O and SO2. The original design was massive, 6 stages of chemical purification at a high pressure, first 4 stages were NaOH then a bicarb and finally a distiled h2o column. the nitrous that came out was very clean as far as we could tell, in other words it smelt perfectley clean, had no after effects etc.

well i was introduced to the project and i had to make some improvments on it. the high pressure was combined with co2 to recondense the nitrous (after a moleculer sieve for water removal) back into clean nitrous tanks for future use. this was a very elaborate set up that cost a lot to make.

so one day a light bulb clicked on in my head. and this is what i came up with. i want to make it very clear that i have not done any checmical analysis on the product, i dont know its true purity, either way im totally and completley happy with the results. at least 20lbs of nitrous have been done using this technique with no problems.

i took a gas mask filter and pushed it up against the nozzle of the tank. i then put a plastic bag over the output of the filter and SLOWLY filled it up. success! and it tasted perfect, not a complaint!

I went ahead to make the ultra simple $7 version (im well aware of possible improvments, im not discussing the radiator version with the regualtor and so on). I took a garden hose quick connect, a gas mask filter and a barb w/ thread.

and this is what i got.


a littel bit of epoxy and the whole thing came together in the 5 minutes it took for the epoxy to set. its a truly beautiful set up that anyone could make.

i just wanted to share it with everyone and ask if there are any possible contaminets that could be produced by the purification process.

I consider NOS a truly madscientist drug, mostly because of the experience i have had with it lol. im sorry if this thread angers anyone, or if ive overlooekd some dangerous checmial reaction that will eventually kill me and anyone who trys this

inother words, dont anyone try this at home!

neutrino - 3-8-2006 at 05:45

The whole point of amateur experimentation is to try things at home. You can tell us not to but I guarantee you that someone will. :D

How much gas can be processed with a single filter? It seems like this would be a rather expensive purification method, but I guess that would depend on the concentration of sulfur oxides in the original gas.

garage chemist - 3-8-2006 at 09:58

I heard that racing grade NOS contains hydrogen sulfide (rotten eggs smell) on erowid. But it seems that different denaturants are also in use.

I haven't seen a source of racing grade NOS anywhere.
I have a gas supply here and what they have is technical grade N2O (undenaturated), suitable for pressurizing things and surely also racing. And whatever else you could use N2O for.
But I don't know if could just go there and get a tank of it.

As you did, I would use NaOH scrubbers to get rid of H2S and SO2 (it removes both).
Can you show a picture of one of your scrubbers? I think your problem is a too small contact surface between gas and liquid, meaning that the bubbles are too large.
Maybe use an aquarium bubbler, if it doesn't get attacked by the NaOH?
A sintered glass filter would of course be perfect for making small bubbles in the washing bottle, I've used it to clean HOMEMADE N2O (form ammonium nitrate) from NO2 and NO (washing with NaOH and then FeSO4 solution).

An alternative would be a column filled with solid NaOH.

The gas mask filter idea is of course perfect, but isn't it expensive? I think that the filter will be saturated soon!
If it is, you should open it to see how it looks inside.

kafka - 3-8-2006 at 18:05

definetley not an expensive method! thats the whole point! :) THe filters cost anywhere from 5-15 american dollars, the quick connect is a little over a buck and the barb fitting is 1 or 2 more dollars.

my friend (who does nos much more than i) has goen through easily 80lbs of nitrous in one weekend with one filter with out any problems. hes been using the same one since the begining and there is no detectable difference in the quality of the product!

the concentration of SO2 is 100ppm. the bottle reads that exactly and ive never heard of them putting h2s in the bottles, i would think legaly they would have to change the label on the bottle anyway. NEVER BREATHE IN THE FIRST BALOON! ALWAYS TEST IT BY SMALL SMELLS FIRST!!!!

NOS's web site has a number you can call to find your nearest distributor. a bottle cost about $50 on craigs list and a 10lb refill is around $50. 10lbs will last one person at least 4 hours of continuous use. each punching bag is only like 1/10 of a lb (that would be about 1 mole of gas) so 10lb can do roughly 100 ballons.

i had zero problems with the NaOH method, trust me it was beautiful. i think my friend still has it ill take pictures of it but it may be in pieces. we did use very fine bubblers at the bottom of each 8 foot by 2inch column.

i have yet to open a filter up to see its condition because ive felt no need to. as soon as there is a decrease in quality i will take a look.

im guessing making your own N2O from ammonium nitrate is far more expensive and in large quantities, far more suspicious...

garage chemist - 4-8-2006 at 02:50

Hmm, I looked at the local gas supplier and the tank sizes they have are 1,5kg ; 8kg and 30kg (undenatured N2O). No 4,5kg racing grade NOS.
However I don't know how expensive it is...

[Edited on 4-8-2006 by garage chemist]

kafka - 15-8-2006 at 19:22

the gas supplier does not carry the racing grade nitrous, at least not here in the states as far as i know. you need to go to an automotive supply, racing supply, hot rod shop type place.

maxmc1027 - 27-2-2012 at 10:40

what about dry ice filtration

bahamuth - 27-2-2012 at 12:28

Quote: Originally posted by kafka  
my friend (who does nos much more than i) has goen through easily 80lbs of nitrous in one weekend with one filter with out any problems. hes been using the same one since the begining and there is no detectable difference in the quality of the product!


Are you telling me a human inhales half of a normal body weight worth of nitrous through a weekend? That cannot be good pure or not...

Anyways, if you would do something scientific to prove the purity of the gas it might be more accepted around here, like scrubb it and test the scrubber solution for sulfides/sulfites and perhaps change the angle towards purifying nitrous gas and not the actual end usage of such a purified gas. This is as I view it sort of a "how to aquire illicit drugs thread" and as such do not really fit the forum. Though that is just my opinion and I am not the one to request or impose (nor am I able to) censorship on anything as long as it has a scientific "red thread" interwoven...


BTW I feel that there is an increase in direct drug (illicit) related threads popping up lately and though I find the subject very interesting/fascinating I cannot avoid thinking that this might attract unwanted attention from certain swimming individuals...


Edit: HAHA, I saw it now, when I noticed the No. of views that this thread is ancient..

Anyhow, my rant still stands:P



[Edited on 27-2-2012 by bahamuth]

megalodon - 29-11-2013 at 14:57

What sort of regulator connects to a big NOS tank like that? Filtering gasses sounds like a fun experiment, but I don't want to turn the knob and have my apparatus explode.

Master Triangle - 25-12-2013 at 04:43

Is that a garden hose fitting?

Nitrous oxide risk

Nitrous2000 - 13-9-2014 at 09:24

Quote: Originally posted by bahamuth  
Quote: Originally posted by kafka  
my friend (who does nos much more than i) has goen through easily 80lbs of nitrous in one weekend with one filter with out any problems. hes been using the same one since the begining and there is no detectable difference in the quality of the product!


Are you telling me a human inhales half of a normal body weight worth of nitrous through a weekend? That cannot be good pure or not...

Anyways, if you would do something scientific to prove the purity of the gas it might be more accepted around here, like scrubb it and test the scrubber solution for sulfides/sulfites and perhaps change the angle towards purifying nitrous gas and not the actual end usage of such a purified gas. This is as I view it sort of a "how to aquire illicit drugs thread" and as such do not really fit the forum. Though that is just my opinion and I am not the one to request or impose (nor am I able to) censorship on anything as long as it has a scientific "red thread" interwoven...


BTW I feel that there is an increase in direct drug (illicit) related threads popping up lately and though I find the subject very interesting/fascinating I cannot avoid thinking that this might attract unwanted attention from certain swimming individuals...


Edit: HAHA, I saw it now, when I noticed the No. of views that this thread is ancient..

Anyhow, my rant still stands:P



[Edited on 27-2-2012 by bahamuth]


Not sure about the swimming references, but I agree that caution with nitrous oxide is warranted. There are lots of cases of dentists "hooked" on huffing nitrous oxide. That is a career ender. From the immediate health concerns point of view, chronic nitrous exposure screws with your immune system and your blood cell formation. Methionine synthase is inhibited. B12 is depleted.

There are permanent neurotoxic effects. What the original poster described in terms of weekend use is crazy. Use some common sense here guys.

hissingnoise - 13-9-2014 at 11:59

"S.W.I.M." ─ Someone Who Isn't Me . . .


franklyn - 13-9-2014 at 17:24

Physical Properties of Nitrous Oxide, N2O

melting point : - 90.81 ºC
boiling point : - 88.46 ºC
Gas density :1.8 gm / L at 25 ºC at 1 Atmosphere
Colorless
Odor : slightly sweet
solubility : 56.7 mL gas / 100 mL H2O at 25 ºC at 1 Atmosphere
very soluble in alcohols and chloroform , soluble in ether, oils and sulfuric acid
∆Hf = + 82 kJ / mol

While perhaps it does not have the explosivity of Acetylene or Hydrazine vapor , N2O has that potential.
Note it's heat of formation ∆Hf is substantially endothermic ( + ), approaching the range of some primary explosives.

Chemical dangers :
Reacts violently with sulphurous anhydride, amorphous boron, phosphine, ethers, aluminium, hydrazine, phenyl-lithium and tungsten carbide. This generates fire and explosion hazard. The substance is a strong oxidant above 300°C. Mixtures with ammonia, carbon monoxide, hydrogen sulfide, oil, grease and fuels are explosive.
From MSDS => http://www.inchem.org/documents/icsc/icsc/eics0067.htm

Nitrous Oxide Explosive Hazards
www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a489459.pdf
See lower half PDF page 5 document page 4 " decomposition catalysts "

http://www.justsayn2o.com/nitrous.purification.html
http://www.justsayn2o.com/nitrous.obtain.html

Physiology
http://www.inchem.org/documents/pims/pharm/nitrusox.htm

.

packetforger - 17-9-2014 at 03:32

This could be of some use to those who are interested in hybrid rocket motors, as impure stuff in a propellant mixture certainly does make one nervous lest there be some strange side effects on the impulse and suchlike!