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Topic: Sourcing Sulfur  (Read 774 times)

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Offline Mydogisinthekgb

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Sourcing Sulfur
« on: April 29, 2021, 03:15:04 PM »
I am a high school student and I want to learn chemistry. I thought it would be cool to start off learning chemistry by learning how to apply chemistry to real-life situations. July 4 is coming up, so maybe I should start off with the pyrotechnics side of chemistry. My neighbor recently had a well dug, and with it, a large amount of coal in limestone. My property is in Canton Il and was the site of a coal mine 150 years ago. In the crick behind my house, I have found lots of shale and iron pyrite. I thought maybe I could source my sulfur from the coal by combustion to release SO2, react it with H2O2 and get H2SO4 and somehow break it down into sulfur, but there are so many other things that can react causing undesired results. Is there a priority queue for chemicals waiting to react? On paper, sulfuric acid can form, but so can lots of other things that can react with other things before the things that I need to react with other things can react. It's just confusing. How do you know what's going to form? Do certain chemicals from before others? let me know. the ideal thing is to extract the iron pyrites from the coal somehow and then separate them to get sulfur fumes and have them condense into fine sulfur powder. Is there a better way to get sulfur from coal? I don't want to buy sulfur and end up on a watchlist. I also need equipment, and I need it cheap. If you have a better way of extracting it let me know, and It would also be nice for someone to help me find out what kind of setup id need specifically for this. thanks.

Offline Borek

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Re: Sourcing Sulfur
« Reply #1 on: April 29, 2021, 03:56:40 PM »
Please read the forum rules -  we don't discuss pyrotechnics here.

How do you know what's going to form?

Basically that's what you learn by studying.

If you want practical approach, book Caveman chemistry can be a good idea, if memory serves me well it combines hand-on experience with theoretical explanations of what is going on.
ChemBuddy chemical calculators - stoichiometry, pH, concentration, buffer preparation, titrations.info

Offline Mydogisinthekgb

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Re: Sourcing Sulfur
« Reply #2 on: April 29, 2021, 04:12:10 PM »
thanks, ill buy a copy right away

Offline Meter

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Re: Sourcing Sulfur
« Reply #3 on: April 30, 2021, 03:23:21 AM »
I would really be careful working with this kind of stuff. Peroxides and strong acids are dangerous. As far as I know, SO2 is fairly toxic too. I hope you have the right equipment to deal with this kind of project safely.

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