toxin - 19-12-2005 at 13:45
Has anyone ever tried to separate compounds or elements of a soil mixtrure in a yard ?
If so how did you go about doing that, any interesting facts of composition ?
neutrino - 19-12-2005 at 14:06
There was a thread around here somewhere on electrolysis of dirt to yeild clay. That might be a good place to start,
12AX7 - 19-12-2005 at 18:02
Soil, besides organic components (hummus (sp), etc.) is just silica, alumina, rust, etc. Maybe lime if you live in that sort of area.
All sorts of trace elements though. Selenium, silver, gold, PGMs, even uranium at your fingertips! Of course, you have to process a metric shitload
(technical term) of dirt to extract it.
If you must, I suggest you read up on lunar and meteoric extraction proposals. Lunar dirt is basically the same material as Earth dirt, it just
hasn't been weathered and processed by hydrothermal and biological processes.
Tim
toxin - 25-12-2005 at 18:45
Speaking of rust, how would you turn rust back in to Fe ?
12AX7 - 25-12-2005 at 18:58
Uh, carbon (or aluminum, or magnesium, or any other strong reducing agent and a lot of fire).
Tim
neutrino - 25-12-2005 at 20:08
Look up thermite.
Wow, this thead derailed fast. 