Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Separation of ammonium nitrate from ammonium sulfonitrate

Antoine - 3-6-2015 at 10:37

Hi!
I have a big problem, I bought a 10kgs bag of ammonium sulfonitrate fertilizer and I don´t now how to separate ammonium nitrate from it . Thanks for Help me and Sorry for my bad english :)

PHILOU Zrealone - 3-6-2015 at 12:11

Following solubility tables http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solubility_table :
1°)(NH4)2SO4 solubility is less in water than NH4NO3
2°) Solubility of (NH4)2SO4 increases slighly with temperature; while the solubility of NH4NO3 increases a lot with temperature.

So it seems as simple as heating a maximum amount of the salt in the minimum amount of boiling water (100°C or more)...decanting the non dissolved salt...the warm liquid upper layer will deposit upon cooling to 0°C a good deal of NH4NO3 cristals and a little (NH4)2SO4.

Antoine - 3-6-2015 at 12:34

OK thank you a lot! i've made exactly the same thing but I collect the undissolved salt and not the liquid! this was my mistake! thanks! :D