Extraction of Nitrates from Soil (The Old Way of Producing Saltpeter)

[@Green.Country.Agroforestry]

This is great stuff! I run a gardening channel, and one ongoing project that I am doing is making nitrate from scratch .. barrel, woodchips, urine .. then biological activity and lots of time (one year from start to finish, we are about halfway there now) Since my end goal here is to make a fertilizer for side dressing, and not to extract a lot of oxidizer - I only intend to process a small sample just to demonstrate the presence of nitrates in the finished product - a lot of viewers have been getting impatient, wanting to see the rest of the cool science stuff .. Now I can just tell them to come here and have a gander at this video! Using ethanol in the refinement process really speeds things up over the way they did it 200 years ago 👍

[@petesmiscellaneousdiscover655]

That's a big favour! Thank you! I hope you will succeed, the series looks great.

[@greengregs]

Fancy finding you here Jason!

[@Preyhawk81]

Add some gyps it binds the folatile ammonium and higends the nitrate yield .

[@davidwittmann6555]

Cant you just use urea instead our urine?

[@Green.Country.Agroforestry]

@@davidwittmann6555 That is where the urea comes from .. unless you have a natural gas field and a bunch of expensive refining equipment to use 😉

[@waynoswaynos]

Rather than doing all that repeated filtering and boiling, better to get your first dark liquid and boil it down to about a third (aggressively to begin with and gently later) then let it cool somewhere dark for a couple of days and it will shoot into crystals. Pour the remaining liquid into the next batch. Recrystallise a few times for purity. Also, if you distill the nitric acid from your salt, and filter and crystallise the remains, then recombine the acid and base you get potassium nitrate, again, and it will be super clean.

[@haraptenang.3408]

Don't let this man cook💀

[@NoBODY-NoBuddy]

Bro looks like u are good at these things , can U please help me❤.

[@NoBODY-NoBuddy]

I am commenting after 1 years , if u are there plz help.

[@haraptenang.3408]

@@NoBODY-NoBuddy whats your problem man maybe i can help you

[@waynoswaynos]

@@NoBODY-NoBuddy what's your question good buddy?

[@watzup62]

Makes sense, in the 1800's they collected the waste from outhouses to make the nitrates. Before that, they dug up dirt from cave floors and used that. Cool video!

[@petesmiscellaneousdiscover655]

I hope it helped. Thank you! :)

[@frisk3320]

This man deserved more than just a mere 71k view, he's awesome, the quality of this video is comparable to some of the famous chemist youtube like Nile red and Cody's lab

[@flexiblebirdchannel]

Hi Pete. What I learned from ancient times was, that nitrates are highly soluble in water and a stable with earthen floor where the urine goes and maisonry walls that peak out of the soil will evaporate water from the walls, soaking it up from the ground, and the nitrates will not evaporate but build white crystals on the lower part of the wall, not washed away by rain So below the rabbit cage is not ideal, where rain will wash away the nitrates, but it will climb up a wooden beam that peaks out of thr soil.

[@Preyhawk81]

The real saltpeter was had where clay with sand and chalk the clay is binder but let less air flow. And they added some granite stones. When sun shines the grante gets hot and helps evaporate the water. And it is very good when no wind disturbe the walls because the bacterias not only need ammonia but CO2 too they can only assimilate the CO2 from air. An chinese study showed the growth maximum would be in an 70%CO2 and 30% O2 atmosphere so you see how important that is.

[@garymucher9590]

I have to say, at your yield rate, you either need to make your rabbits step up their output OR get a heck of a lot more rabbits...

[@petesmiscellaneousdiscover655]

Haha! What do you think I'm trying to recruit an army of rabbits :D? Working with these small amounts of material, loosing half a gram could mean loosing 150% of the yield. I will have to improve my technique and process more material to get more accurate idea of the nitrate content. I will try to make more videos in the summer. Meanwhile, have a nice day.

[@88njtrigg88]

@@petesmiscellaneousdiscover655 Find a source of bat droppings. Have a good one. Ciao..!

[@nivelbraack]

really nice video! I always love to find new videos about salpeter extraction. my father had a long time goats and I wanna try isolate KNO3 out of the soil. I watched a lot of about it but your´s is truely one of the best. I already saw in the comments the recommandation with the wood ash. that a good idea, not only because you will get KNO3 only, but with it KNO3 is much less soluble than the other NO3 salts. so its starting way earlier in the recrystalization to form nice crystals. in the beginning I didnt expect your relative clean product, so good job and good luck at the next trys ^^

[@petesmiscellaneousdiscover655]

Thank you! Very sweet of you. I made this one, because I couldn't find much about it before and when I succeeded I wanted to help others. I really appreciate you and your support!

[@lastcent5140]

I really appreciate your presentation style. Almost polar opposite of conventional media

[@johnfajer7691]

Outstanding video! Thanks! I've been trying to isolate some saltpeter for garden fertilizer for some time now!

[@petesmiscellaneousdiscover655]

Thank you too! I hope the video helped and that you succeed!

[@rick.mz29]

This was not only extremely interesting from beginning to end but also gave light to judging soil in a different manner.

[@Mr-Highball]

While many may click away after seeing the large text blocks, I'm not part of the many. Absolutely loved the detail you provided and hope that you'll pick back up with some more youtube vids

[@mikeblair2594]

I would have started with the foxfire books #5. That shows you how to get proper crystals with minimum carpentry skills, very minimum. You would also be able to use all the dirt that been soaking for years and only use your fancy equipment for refining without staining anything. Cheers!

[@petesmiscellaneousdiscover655]

Great material! Thanks for the advice, it's well appreciated.

[@DudeMan-v6r]

I recommend making the ley of wood ash before even collecting the manure.. the wood ash converts all other nitrates "CaNO3 NaNO3 NHNO3 etc" into KNO3 i believe your yeild wouldve been much higher the ley of wood ash is a very important step.. you can actually watch the sodium and calcium fall out of the solution after that it becomes clearer

[@rowanbcapr]

11:25 you actual created an old style of slow burning fuse. i’m not entirely sure of the chemistry behind it but i know that the fuses burn slower and more reliably just lighting a string (in this case the paper towel)

[@sandmanbub]

What would happen if you allowed the material dissolved in water sit in the freezer until it reaches just above 32f and poured the liquid into another container for later, then added more water to dissolve the crystals repeating the procedure 'till you had clear water with crystals in it? I'm sure the crystals would still need further washing with your solvent of choice, but was wondering if you think it would be worth trying. Had a great time watching you. You had much better success than I did 30 years ago with dirt collected from what was left of the foundations of ruined 200 year old buildings. I'm interested in trying once more. Subscribed :)

[@petesmiscellaneousdiscover655]

I sure like your idea man. I kind of wanted to do this, but the impurity really likes to stick around when doing water recrystallizations. Not sure if I mentioned it, but it is quite hard to push the super soluble nitrates out of solution too. My idea for the next run is to recrystallize from ethanol right after the first water leach. It doesn't dissolve the impurity and pushes the nitrates out of solution easily when cooled. Thank you for commenting it's really sweet of you. I appreciate you.

[@Preyhawk81]

Alchemists of the middle ages uses Alum. When disolved it binds the clay and mud particels and the water starts to get clear. The dirt is on the bottom of the beaker. Its easier to clean like this.

[@Chmist_mohammad_1999]

I thank you with all my heart for this most wonderful experience. I would like to know the final product, is it [potassium nitrate]??????

[@petesmiscellaneousdiscover655]

It is not all pure potassium nitrate. It's a mix of sodium, potassium, calcium or even ammonium nitrates.

[@IdiotWithEducation]

@@petesmiscellaneousdiscover655 is there a way to refine it further to make a rocket fuel? Maybe crystallizing it? Please make a video on this!

[@petesmiscellaneousdiscover655]

@@IdiotWithEducation If I had a greater amount of the salt, I would be able to perform a few tests and purify it accordingly. With the amount of salt I have now, purification would only mean a loss of yield. I will make a video about it again, extracting a bigger amount, that I am able to work with. But I don't know anything about rocket motors, to judge if the nitrates are pure enough for this use. Anyway, stay subscribed so you don't miss it! I hope you have a nice day.

[@성골진골]

You must be a real salt peter! Awesome!

[@petesmiscellaneousdiscover655]

Thank you a lot, but I think I'm staying a chemist! Have a nice day!

[@ravikiran1129]

I admire your efforts, keep making such videos. It was so informative. Thanks .😊🙏

[@petesmiscellaneousdiscover655]

Thanks! The support is super nice! I'll try to do so. I hope you'll keep enjoying them.

[@ravikiran1129]

Yes definitely, my supports will always be there for you. I always love such contents related to chemistry.

[@chromecrescent]

Animal-sourced nitrates will have a lot of Ca, leading to the isolation of Calcium nitrate. I saw a Cody's Lab video where he added wood ash to the crude liquid/soil mixture to precipitate out CaCO3, and make sure that you isolate mostly Na and K nitrates. See if adding that step would help

[@IRFedajkin]

Nice video showing the crazy effort needed for getting few grams of something useful from "kilos" of ... s**t. Thank you. As a recommendation - mix the hot source solution with (or filter it over) some clean wooden ash to convert all nitrates to mostly potassium nitrate only. As the result you might see easier filtration (it depends), more predictable results (one salt instead of a mixture) and less hygroscopic final product. Ammonium nitrate is extremely hygroscopic, therefore almost unusable for any flame tests. Sodium nitrate is less hygroscopic, but still a lot.

[@petesmiscellaneousdiscover655]

Thank you for all the advice! I've learned my lesson as you can see ;). Now that I have achieved this, my eyes have magically opened. I'm able to see all my mistakes in the past, and I'm able to learn from them. It's an amazing feeling I tell you. I will make another videos about nitrates when it will get a bit warmer, with better yields I hope. Have a beautiful day.

[@spiveeforever7093]

Love the Nitrogen cycle diagram! I was confused by the NH3 + O2 step, because I would expect nitrogen oxidation to use water as a source of oxygen too, but I guess it's just a simplification, just some mix of N oxidation and phosphorylation, enough to make the conservation of mass intuitive. Is that the idea? Great video as well, I have been so curious about nitrate extraction from organic sources recently, this was a great result.

[@ludditeneaderthal]

My suggestion for the gross extraction from your soil: rather than making mud tea, you use the perforated bucket, filter, wood ash, nitre bearing earth column technique. Pour multiple loads of boiling water through the column, resulting in a solids free weak solution of the water soluble materials in your soil, less those materials that bond to the wood ash. THEN worry about concentrating. This is the traditional method of nitrate recovery. You got a very low yield by leaving unclaimed material at multiple steps, due to having far too much solids throughout your extraction process.

[@capellovici]

That's the best way known by GIs during Vietnam war....

[@loserbmx3944]

Could you just stir the dirt and water then let the dirt settle then extract the clear water on top and boil it down? Won’t yelled as much but it’ll be easier.

[@petesmiscellaneousdiscover655]

I did let it settle, just a bit longer. The clay particles that get dispersed into the solution are really fine and therefore almost unsettleable. It needs long time to settle, and therefore it takes on the brown colour. There's not really a way around it. I will maybe figure out some other way. Thanks for commenting.

[@johnhorner8640]

Pete, very interesting. Some 45 years ago my brother and I brought about 45 pounds of bat guano out of a cave. We were bored. It was my intention to use it on the garden. 1 spoon full per 5 gallons of water would have probably worked nicely. The poor bats didn't like our burlap/kerosene torches and screwing up/killing them has to be a criminal. I wonder how many pounds of nitrate I would have gotten out of 40 lbs? What is the technical name for your vacuum gizmo. Makes me wish I had taken chemistry in school.

[@petesmiscellaneousdiscover655]

Ha John! That's a great story. Guano is super rich in nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorus, calcium or other minerals). The nitrate content of bat guano according to Wikipedia is 0,5%, meaning that if you had 40 pounds of guano, it could yield you 0,2 pounds of pure nitrate. If you were to make gunpowder of it, you could make 200-400 regular sized 9mm pistol bullets. I would say, that's plenty :D. Also, the magical vacuum apparatus is called "fritted Buchner funnel" and it is used for vacuum filtration. Thanks for the nice comment! Have a good time.

[@mortezaashrafi2868]

It was great. Can you make gunpowder with this potassium nitrate?

[@petesmiscellaneousdiscover655]

Yes, sure. I assume the product is reasonably pure and at least 90% nitrate - Ca/Na/K/NH4. So it is as possible as with the store bought stuff. I'm planning to do it eventually, so stay tuned!

[@Preyhawk81]

@@petesmiscellaneousdiscover655 You need to recrystall the nitrate its too unclean for blackpowder.

[@petesmiscellaneousdiscover655]

@@Preyhawk81 I know. I would if I had a bigger amount to work with. Thanks for the advice.

[@otilium7503]

If the source is burnt first, will that change the salt? I mean , one will get potassium instead of ammonia salt?

[@chemistryofquestionablequa6252]

I'm thinking that you could treat the soil with sulphuric acid in a distillation apparatus to extract HNO3, then use it to directly produce the nitrate of your choice. It might be best to do that with the crude nitrate salts, rather than directly on the soil.

[@petesmiscellaneousdiscover655]

I suppose that might not work. There was chloride salts too. Actually, it makes up most of the unwanted salts present. So I would produce HCl gas as well as the nitric. And one more thing, the nitric would probably decompose due to all the impurities, make the reaction a mess and lower my yield. It could be just a waste of precious acids. I'm not even sure if I will want to try this, but I will have to make nitric out of the nitrate I have now and see if even that works. Thanks for the comment tho, I would never have thought of going this way.

[@chemistryofquestionablequa6252]

I didn't even think about the HCL salts. You're probably right. If it did work it would have to be done on a latte scale. Because of the difference in boiling point between HCL and HNO3, you could probably separate them through distillation.

[@petesmiscellaneousdiscover655]

@@chemistryofquestionablequa6252 That is true, even though I believe my physical separation more than any distillation. In distillation you will always have and impurity of the other volatiles in your current fraction. But you are right. Also, why even bother, let's distill straight aqua-regia :D. Thank you, have a nice day

[@cditzler6313]

wow so I once worked at a cat dealership and I was doing a service on a unit on a pig farm it was really cold and I noticed coming out of the ground crystal formations that I thought at the time was what looked like the not sure the name but welders use them to write on steel they were that big and in a row do you think it was nitrates from the pig poopy

[@tukhanh2812]

Amazing & informative video!

[@petesmiscellaneousdiscover655]

Thank you a lot!

[@tukhanh2812]

@@morgothnium2392 indeed

[@greggwilliams6696]

Where do you get your fume hoods and how much are they?

[@matthewwagner47]

Wouldn't it be easier to get fertilizer abs seperate the nitrates?

[@nunyabiznes33]

This is the same thing that used to be used to preserve meat right?

[@petesmiscellaneousdiscover655]

Right! I bet you can still find it in some products. It's the food additive E252.

[@meldeviaedit7478]

hello, can we do it with burnt Kübra, I don't have a vacuum filter, what can I use as an alternative?

[@TATPMuncher]

Normal filter should work probably

[@MrRedeyedJedi]

Pete from what I hear is a good source for salt peter, especially when animals have pissed on it for years

[@petesmiscellaneousdiscover655]

Thank you for the confirmation.

[@MrRedeyedJedi]

@@petesmiscellaneousdiscover655 not you Pete lol, the soil 😂

[@تدابيرامعبدالرحمانالجزائرية]

اتمنى ان تضع الترجمة للغة العربية انا لم افهم ماقمت به وانا بحاجة لتعلم

[@university.student-eng]

بحثت كثيراً ولم اجد احد يشرح شكراً لك

[@satina1169]

Very interesting video thanks. However I would never grind an oxidizer with anything that it could combust with due to friction. Better grind them separately

[@Null-o7j]

Chinese snow. Also worth noting that stump remover (decomposition accelerator) from hardware stores is plain old KNO3.

[@sluggishruggish]

Not sure if it’s still common practice, but they used to add salt peter to cigarettes to make them burn more evenly.

[@johnnykirk1501]

What's making the red flame as the good one burns?

[@petesmiscellaneousdiscover655]

I believe the only metal ion that could be present in reasonable quantity and would color the flame red is calcium. But it could also be just bad lighting.

[@johnnykirk1501]

@@petesmiscellaneousdiscover655 ah cool i knew strontium was red flames, didn't know calcium did too.

[@jeronimaspeteraitis1578]

the best video about potassium nitrate.

[@petesmiscellaneousdiscover655]

That is just heartwarming to read. Thank you so much, I appreciate it!

[@wijpke]

According to Guttman you must add a bit of gelatin to the manure to get out the impurities wood ash to get a surplus of potassium ions in the mix..also try filtering through activated charcoal to clean up the crystals

[@Preyhawk81]

alum was used from the alchemists in middle age it contains potassium and id drags down dirt you can get it for water treatment (PotassiumAluminiumsulfate)

[@黄蟮]

I heard that the best detonator is lead azide (Pb(N3)2), which is used for detonators and the primer of gun bullets.

[@petesmiscellaneousdiscover655]

You are right, but what does this have to do with the video?

[@黄蟮]

@@petesmiscellaneousdiscover655 I can only understand it roughly, but I didn’t understand it at first

[@黄蟮]

@@petesmiscellaneousdiscover655 This video is very important to me, but I can’t understand the video at first. Can any dirt be fine?

[@petesmiscellaneousdiscover655]

@@黄蟮 Not really, you should use manure, compost or soil that has some urine around

[@黄蟮]

@@petesmiscellaneousdiscover655 Understand, thank you for your reminder. I understand the rest. I really listened to what you said. It’s better than reading for ten years. This is our Chinese culture. It is not us Chinese who want to inherit our Chinese culture, but you.

[@phildiesel66]

you know theres supposed to be an actual circular paper filter in your vacuum funnel, right? thats why a lot of that dark material kept getting through the porous ceramic filter stuff...

[@andrewokantey]

Yeah

[@JewsRock-ILJ]

Try using a centrifuge to remove the solids before crystallisation.

[@mortezaashrafi2868]

In this method, can sheep manure or chicken manure be used instead of saline soil?

[@petesmiscellaneousdiscover655]

Yes, but it must be aged. Manure doesn't contain nitrates when leaving the animal body. It's the bacteria outside that convert the biomass into nitrates. And it has to be from an area protected from rain, as these salt are very easily dissolved and soaked back into the ground.

[@hamster1169]

Ive just heard of this a few days ago yours is the 3rd vid I've seen - are Nitrates Fertilizer? Or just Explosive? Thank you sir!

[@snapdragon6601]

Both..but to become black powder he would need to all Sulphur and Charcoal to it.

[@hamster1169]

@@snapdragon6601 hey hello I just wanted to say I never had no interest in black powder however for my garden I found a ton ton a ton ton ton ton ton of nitrates under these pine trees where all the dogs peed I mean there was so much nitrate anyway have a good time

[@snapdragon6601]

@@hamster1169 Well, it's still good for use as a fertilizer all by itself. It's especially good for germinating hard shell seeds.. 🙂👨‍🌾

[@koukouzee2923]

i did set my pile of straw few weeks ago i still pee on it every day i wonder how much it takes to get nitrifiyed

[@petesmiscellaneousdiscover655]

It depends on how hot is the weather where you live and how much material are you using. The procedure is: At least the first 3 months, you should add urine (tho you can do it however long you want, as it always helps), then you should leave the bacteria do their job and the only thing needed is that the pile is always wet and gets enough aeration (turn the pile every month, but as I said doing it twice will only help things). This decomposition can take from 6-16 months. All said, you could extract nitrates just a few months after setting the pile, but your yield won't be as high as after a full year or two. You need to make observations and act accordingly - the niter pile is gonna be finally done, when there is no more carbon (straw) left. If its too wet leave it out in the sun, if it's too dry water it,... It's not rocket science! It's just a compost! For more information, here is Cody's video: vimeo.com/254248552 I'm interested to hear about your progress and results, so let me know! Thank you for commenting and have a nice day.

[@koukouzee2923]

I watched Cody's vid it is what inspired me to do it I did add some commercial urea because my goal is the nitrates and not the all from scratch idea Thanks for the info and I'll keep you updated

[@koukouzee2923]

@@petesmiscellaneousdiscover655 11 months later I did a test (few handfuls) And I got nitrates ! I ran into a problem tho I never stopped adding urine and urea and it's kinda annoying to seperate the nitrates pure I'll stop adding them and wait few extra months so I get it more pure

[@WildBearFoot]

He would love my chicken coop, my grandfather built it 40+ years ago and its had chickens in it ever since. We only clean it to put on the garden every couple years and even then the floor stays 4" higher than the ground outside.

[@JC-zh1xy]

If I wanted to read a book about how to make nitrates I would have gone to the library!

[@arkar1312]

This powder use in gun powder?

[@petesmiscellaneousdiscover655]

Yes, but it's probably borderline impure. The gunpowder might be considerably weaker, but that can be solved by further purification of the salt.

[@shajidhassan1245]

Can i get saltpetre from leaching dried cow dung or compost??

[@petesmiscellaneousdiscover655]

"Dried" doesn't sound so good. If you found it out on a field it most probably won't work, because the nitrates are probably already leached out due to rain. The compost is a better option, but I personally haven't succeeded with it yet. I have a feeling my compost was too packed and wet. So my advice would be to use dry fallen leaves, hay, straw or even thin wooden sticks, urinate on it (urine has the most accessible nitrogen) and turn it periodically to get the bacteria enough oxygen. Or you could gather those dungs, urinate on them,... and make a compost by a similar technique mentioned before. Feel free to ask me! I hope you will succeed!

[@shajidhassan1245]

@@petesmiscellaneousdiscover655 is there any quicker way to produce saltpetre without nitre bed??

[@shajidhassan1245]

@@petesmiscellaneousdiscover655 no,i didn't found dung in field. i dried dung.i also mix straw and green grass before dried it.

[@petesmiscellaneousdiscover655]

@@shajidhassan1245 sorry for my late response. There is, but only synthetic, starting from chemicals.

[@petesmiscellaneousdiscover655]

@@shajidhassan1245 okay, you should aerate it and wait till it composts.

[@kakadachum3002]

Can bat droppings produce nitrate?

[@godzillafanrpg]

Hey you are cambodian right? , and I'm cambodian nice to meet you.

[@smokie282]

Use less heat, use a desiccant and keep it under vacuum ?

[@Biokemist-o3k]

Peter, new subscriber here!! I love the channel. I am putting together a book entitled Great Grandfather's book of everyday and survival chemistry. It is a massive undertaking but I would love to talk to you about a couple things.

[@bromisovalum8417]

A filter aid like Aerosil (fumed sillica) could make the filtering process more practical. Boiling with activated carbon is a good trick to take colored organic impurities out.

[@dougalexander7204]

I have a 55 gal plastic barrel of urine, chicken manure/straw, and hardwood ash. It’s been brewing for 3 years. Soon, I want to filter and evaporate the liquid and see what happens.

[@lorenray9479]

Oh yeah! So interesting. Need a full computer screen to read and see it all.

[@petesmiscellaneousdiscover655]

Thank you for this feedback. I'm in a stage of adjusting everything and this is very helpful, thank you. I promise to do better in the future.

[@lindascience3244]

Keep making such videos, very interesting !!!😍

[@Jan-iq8ep]

Very cool and beautifully maked video! Good job!

[@hopefilledsinner3911]

On another video it suggests you get a straw bale put it in a bag and pee in it for a year. The bacteria will turn you pee into nitrates. Allow it to dry before processing.

[@georgefolk3134]

Boom liquid 16:00 the nitrates have a lot of oxygen and are a great oxidizer so it will go boom with ethanol

[@georgefolk3134]

Or should I say that it would be extra flammable

[@ratatoskran4124]

I'm honestly horrible at chem and etc but TYSM for your content! really appreciate this vid :D

[@petesmiscellaneousdiscover655]

Awww! Thank you so much man! I hope it helped you, enjoy.

[@nicolasparadis1407]

Extremely interesting 😊 thank you

[@shahinakhatun3249]

Sir ,would please explain me about the production of saltpetre in bengal region in ancient india.they didn't make nitre bed like european.

[@petesmiscellaneousdiscover655]

I'm sorry for my late response sir. Your question is quite hard to answer, because there is many processes that are used in Bengal region, that also work. Where to get soil with nitrates: Soil containing nitrates is collected in the spring, from April to March, but can be done anytime it's dry for at least a few months. It is collected from around people's houses and sheds of their animals. Soil around toilettes or places where people urinate are the best. The dry salt sandy soil is collected and processed. The leaching and purification process: A square hole is dug. This hole is made from mud, to be strong and to resist collapsing when wet. On the bottom of the hole, several tubes cut in half are buried, to act as drainage. They are connected on the end by a small ditch, to lead into one outlet, that can be a whole pipe, going through the wall of the square hole. The hole's bottom is then covered by a cloth. One has to be careful, to no block the drainage holes. Small sticks can be set perpendicularly to the tubes, to prevent that, creating mesh/square like pattern. On the cloth, is set a layer of soil, that is believed to contain nitrates. Then, water is carefully poured on top, to leach the nitrates. It will soak into the soil, dissolve the salts, and drip out of the bottom. The drips will flow into the tubes cut in half, and out of the outlet. Under the outlet pipe, a jar can be set, to collect the solution. In the last step, the solution containing the nitrates needs to be evaporated, either by boiling or being set out in the sun. Once dry, the salts can be re-dissolved, filtered and evaporated multiple times to obtain higher purity product. If you have any more questions, feel free to ask me again.

[@shahinakhatun3249]

Sir , nuniah plough special area for saltpeter in india.What is the meaning of special area?And how nuniah plough that area?

[@petesmiscellaneousdiscover655]

@@shahinakhatun3249 To my understanding, it's an area with high concentration of nitrates. These areas can be found in and around the buildings of farm animals. Copy this into Google: media.istockphoto.com/photos/unpaved-village-road-with-view-of-cow-shed-and-mud-huts-picture-id1202190026

[@shahinakhatun3249]

@@petesmiscellaneousdiscover655 there also mentioned a special earth called sithi which was spread to the special area. What is this special earth? And where they get form and why they spread it??

[@petesmiscellaneousdiscover655]

@@shahinakhatun3249 It's all the same thing! The dirt only has a special name, but it's what I mentioned before in my responds. It is simply the nitrated soil, and it is spread to the special area just for extraction. It really doesn't matter how it is called or what shape is the area. Only thing important is, that you are able to extract, leach the nitrates out of the soil. You might have to improvise, as everyone does. Last thing, the soil is spread, so it is equal all around. so that everything is wet, and noting dry or too drowned.

[@shajidhassan1245]

Sir, I boil some dried bird poop with wood ash.i got ingredients like you.but my ingredients colour not like you.i burn some ingredients they also make yellow bubble in heat

[@shajidhassan1245]

I mean my pet bird poop.i dried this poop for 7 days.i don't leached it but i powdered poop and i boiled it with clean wood ash.i got ash yellow colour mixed ingredients. it burns like your salt and create yellow bubble in fire. I don't sure ut is saltpeter or other things.

[@petesmiscellaneousdiscover655]

@@shajidhassan1245 I would assume the yellow color can come from the leaching of the wood ash. Which of my samples does it burn like? Also, does it burn when lit or do you have to heat it with a lighter in order to do anything? If it doesn't aggressively combust, it may not be nitrate, it can be the any potassium salt from the wood ash just releasing water and creating the "bubbles".

[@DudeMan-v6r]

Also put the manure in a flour sack or pillow case like a giant tea bag.. saves a lot of filtering..

[@jmccann96]

The noise in the background is better than no voiceover.

[@lorenray9479]

100 bunbuns, and a 55 gal drum and 1 year of patience! My wife says do Not interrupt!

[@petesmiscellaneousdiscover655]

Ha! It doesn't cost that much, or does it!

[@idontknowmyfirstname69]

Clean your frit in very hot concentrated lye solution. Let it soak a bit then use vacuum to pull it through a couple of times. Should clear it up

[@Plastikdoom]

Hey man, this cool, but gotta say if you just want to filter the solution…wouldn’t more water be better? It’d settle out more solids…and also, I think using a cheap knock off water filter, like the home depot ones, equivalent of brita filters or whatever, but cheaper would great, as the nitrates are water soluble, and solids aren’t, that should remove a lot of them, if not all of them.

[@Plastikdoom]

Plus more volume of water would help ensure that you are fully dissolving all the nitrates into it, then can quickly/easily move onto the ethanol after that, to get only the ones you want out of it. Then just evaporate on big stainless cookie sheets. After enough filtering to remove the solids.

[@shamansalah1399]

Thank you , waiting for more

[@petesmiscellaneousdiscover655]

You are welcome!

[@bromisovalum8417]

Nice work! I always wondered about this process, nice to see it being done.

[@unlockeduk]

good work my friend

[@lorenray9479]

Ten min. In not done?

[@petesmiscellaneousdiscover655]

I'm sorry, I will think about this when making future videos, have a nice day!

[@cristianomaker]

Amazing video, I also made the same some years ago.

[@MH-jt3lx]

Just add water boil it then filter hot, let cool, and repeat washing it out until you get clean pure crystals, potassium nitrate dissolves great in hot water the impurity's not as much

[@stephenfowler4115]

Try centrifuging after dissolving them in water

[@petesmiscellaneousdiscover655]

I don't have a centrifuge yet, and it might be impractical to centrifuge all of the 150mls of the solution, but it is still probably the best method on separating the clay. Thank you for commenting, it helps!

[@philhans7437]

You screwed this up in like the first 30 seconds man. It's highly soluble in water at high temp but not at room temp so when you waited two days and then filtered and tossed the mud you tossed your nitrate. You should have filtered immediately after dissolving in boiling water, saved the water and let it cool. Once cooled filtered again and saved the particulate. Dissolve in boiling water again this time in minimal amount and then allow to cool down In order to recrystalize.

[@LiaLia0407]

if you added activated charcoal it probably would have gotten rid of the colored impurity

[@demonsluger]

60% yield for the first time? sound awesome to me

[@virality365]

Kno3 is soluble in acetone..

[@petesmiscellaneousdiscover655]

Well yeah, but only slightly. I did tests before and the "nitrate containing salt" looked untouched even after heating the acetone...

[@Ryuuken24]

Salt peter doesn't "burn", it's an oxidizer, alone it's harmless but, mix it with certain rations and boom, there goes the dynamite.

[@drygordspellweaver8761]

This guy just played with rabbit poop for 10 minutes

[@petesmiscellaneousdiscover655]

More like a few hours :p Well worth it!

[@aboyne]

step 1: piss and shit on the floor for 20 years already been doing that anyway 😎

[@richardchambers256]

I used to raise rabbits, so I know the white substance your talking about. (I was young and really bad about cleaning under the rabbit huches) so we had tons of that crap. I only wish I knew at the time what I could do with it.

[@dhawalsharma8889]

Dude you are awesome...

[@petesmiscellaneousdiscover655]

Why would you say that? Thank you :)

[@michaelthemadsoldiertist]

I got a similar outcome by peeing in a large kitty litter jug letting it settle a couple days carefully pouring off the liquid from the top and eventually drying the leftover into flaky yellow white powder.

[@DenverLoveless]

You went the long way around the barn. Just look up U.S. civil war instructions to produce literally pounds or (kg) of kno3.

[@petesmiscellaneousdiscover655]

Very useful link. It's quite theoretic but gives me some ideas. Thank you.

[@DenverLoveless]

@@petesmiscellaneousdiscover655 Theroretic? Hardly... It was put in to practice by thousands to help with the war effort and they produced literally tons of it for black powder production.

[@Tužni-c4i]

Ovo je super

[@DBXLabs]

Very epic

[@petesmiscellaneousdiscover655]

In fact, it is. And welcome DBX Labs! Love your videos, keep it up!

[@yongkerzoker7011]

👍👍👍👍

[@petesmiscellaneousdiscover655]

Thanks :)

[@shahinakhatun3249]

👍👍good video.

[@petesmiscellaneousdiscover655]

Thank you.

[@lorenray9479]

Musta forgot the ash, pot ass that is! Haha

[@petesmiscellaneousdiscover655]

Right! I already realized! Thank you.

[@JohnDoe-rx3vn]

9:31 shots!

[@petesmiscellaneousdiscover655]

Ugh! No thank you :D!

[@jonshepherd2550]

Crystallization

[@petesmiscellaneousdiscover655]

Did I make a typo anywhere?

[@timothyblazer1749]

Hardwood ashes my friend. Add some.

[@petesmiscellaneousdiscover655]

Write that down! Write that down! Thank you!

[@excitedbox5705]

You mostly extracted urea not salt peter. If there was salt peter it would have been in the precipitate from the first filtration which you didn't continue refining. When doing an extraction you always start with solvent that has high solubility for everything then either low solubility for your product and high solubility for the impurities or the other way around. In a water extraction that you crystalized and washed with water you guarantee yourself the lowest possible yield unless your product has extremely HIGH water solubility.

[@petesmiscellaneousdiscover655]

Um... I'm not sure I understand. The way I did the extraction was really improvised BUT, there is a few things that would indicate the product is in fact a nitrate salt: 1. It has needle-shaped crystals (urea does too, but) 2. It is insoluble in acetone (urea is slightly) 3. It has strong oxidizing properties (urea has not). Also, my product has extremely HIGH water solubility.

[@kreynolds1123]

One way to quickly remove organics impurities is to add h2o2.

[@IgorIglesias]

It would be better if had áudio, although good work!

[@petesmiscellaneousdiscover655]

Thank you!