Chapter 287 Preparing for a Soap Factory

Western border, Border Town.

The washing stones purchased from Silver Light City filled four boats, and it took several days just to unload them.

Now that there are sufficient raw materials, the soap production plan should be officially put on the agenda.

The supporting factories and warehouses have already been set up—the soap factory is located next to the industrial park, next to the No. 2 steam assembly factory, and the shape is exactly the same. The roof, beams, and wall panels are all made of wood, and the size is a little smaller. In addition, the cutting and hoisting of the wood are all done by witches, so the construction period only took a short week.

Using washing stones, or trona, to make soap is essentially a series of chemical reactions. The required raw materials are also very common. In addition to soda ash, a large amount of lime milk and oil are also required. Among them, milk of lime is the suspension that precipitates at the bottom of the container after lime is immersed in water, and is used to react with soda ash to generate caustic soda, and then react with caustic soda and oil to generate higher fatty acid salts and glycerin. The former is soap, while the latter is an extremely important raw material for explosives.

When making soap before, Roland had already tested the complete reaction process in the backyard of the castle. The principle is basically the same, but to expand a small amount of trial production to mass production, it is still necessary to formulate reasonable processes and specifications, and more importantly, professional chemical talents are needed to guide production.

For this reason, he called the chief alchemist into his office.

"Your Highness, I have already thought of a possible feasible plan for the large-scale production of sulfuric acid you requested." As soon as he entered the door, Kymer Strull yelled loudly, "However, this requires a large amount of lead, and it is necessary to make the lead into The blacksmith of the container, I heard that one of your witches can cut metal accurately, and she made those rumbling iron bumps, can I..."

"Of course, tell me the shape and size of the container you requested, and I will let the Witch Union do it." Roland beckoned him to sit down, "I didn't come to you today to make acid, but another task .”

"Your Highness, I really don't have time to be busy with other things recently," Kai Mo shook his head repeatedly. "Large-scale acid production is a formidable challenge, and I must do my best." He paused and added , "Not even the disciples, they are all assisting me in preparing for this matter, none of them can leave."

"Don't worry, it won't take much of your time." Roland took a sip of tea, "You don't need to transfer your favorite disciples to take charge, just a few apprentices."

"Then... what is the mission?"

"Soap is a cheap version of soap in the convenience market. Except for the taste, its function is exactly the same as that of soap. It can be used for bathing, washing clothes, and cleaning dishes."

"Is it the saponification reaction mentioned in "Elementary Chemistry"?" Kaimo touched his beard and said, "The one that uses sodium hydroxide and oil to react to form alcohol and salt?"

It has to be said that it is a very strange feeling to hear standard chemical terms from an alchemist, especially when the term is self-invented. Roland held back his smile, nodded solemnly and said, "That's right, it's the saponification reaction recorded in ancient books. I also figured out how to make soap based on it."

"Then what do you need me to do? If it's not very important, I suggest putting it in production later. After all, even if your people don't take a bath for several days, it's fine. Clothes and dishes are soaked in the river directly." Just soak it."

"It's very important," the prince emphasized. "In other words, making soap is not important, but the by-products of the production process are what I need urgently."

"You mean...alcohol?" Kaimo said disapprovingly.

"That's right, it's alcohol. You can also call it glycerin." Roland said, "It's an extremely important raw material, and its significance is no less than that of two acids."

"Okay," Kaymo Strire shrugged, "but it's settled, I don't have time to implement it myself."

He let out a light breath, dealing with the chief alchemist is really tiring, "You just need to pick out a few clever apprentices and demonstrate it in front of them. I will recruit some leaders to produce, but they After all, I don’t know anything about chemistry, so someone must check every link.” The prince paused for a while, “You can also treat it as a chemical experiment that has never been practiced – if it is placed in an alchemy workshop, this process can mean a lot. The discovery of an alchemical formula is enough for an apprentice to be awarded the title of alchemist."

It was probably the last sentence that convinced Kaimo, "In this case, I will spend an afternoon teaching the content you assigned to the apprentices."

"Very good," Roland smiled slightly, "You should also know that the most important thing in the production process is to produce enough sodium hydroxide," he wrote down the reaction formula on the paper—before the synthetic alkali process was invented, natural Alkali is the most important raw material for making alkali. The main component of the latter is sodium bicarbonate, which can be decomposed into sodium carbonate, carbon dioxide and water by heating. Because of the abundant raw materials and simple process, it is still used until modern times. "The washing stone is heated and decomposed, dissolved in water, and filtered to obtain a relatively pure sodium carbonate solution."

"The next step is to heat it with milk of lime to obtain sodium hydroxide solution, and the purification method should be easy for you to think of," he explained as he wrote, "clarify, distill, mix, and repeat this step until the concentration of the solution is A large amount of crystallization can be precipitated after cooling."

These are the contents involved in "Elementary Chemistry". Due to the many nicknames of the two bases, they are easily confused (such as caustic soda, caustic soda, soda ash, baking soda, baking soda, soda, etc.), and they are important knowledge points in the exam. Back then, I had memorized a lot of relevant content in the textbook, so I still remember it clearly.

"I understand," the chief alchemist read the reaction formula from beginning to end, "But Your Highness, what about the oil?"

"I will arrange for these materials to be delivered to you." Animal fat is still expensive in this era, but after the last time the guard's seed procurement trip brought olive tree seeds from Falling Dragon Ridge, Border Town There is a reliable source of vegetable oil. Although it is currently only planted on a small scale in the backyard of the castle, with the ripening ability of the leaves, it is not a problem to harvest a bunch of fruits a day.

The extraction of olive oil is also very simple. After the fruit is ripe, the oil can be extracted by physical cold pressing, and then filtered through the filter to remove debris and residue, and then a clear oil can be obtained.

Finally, after briefly explaining the preparation of soap and the requirements for keeping glycerin, Roland let Kymer Struer leave the office.

In this way, when the soap factory opened, he would have a steady source of glycerin.

With glycerin, it means that the real smokeless propellant and powerful explosives are also not far away from him.