Chapter 375: The Most Advanced and the Most Suitable
Seeing the Crown Prince's eyes light up with excitement, Lavoisier hurriedly explained, "Your Highness, if you only need one or two thousand kilograms of casein glue per month, an investment of 5,000 livres would suffice. But if we're talking about 50,000 kilograms, the raw materials like soda ash and water glass will be in severe shortage. Currently, the entire production of soda ash around Paris can only support about 1,000 kilograms of casein glue per month.
"So, you would first need to invest in a soda ash factory, and it would have to be on a massive scale. You see, producing soda ash requires building a reverberatory furnace and a sulfuric acid factory, which would cost at least 800,000 livres. And that's not including the costs for producing water glass and purifying slaked lime..."
"Wait a minute," Joseph interrupted, raising his hand. "Did you just say that producing soda ash requires a reverberatory furnace? Like the ones used for steelmaking?"
"That's correct, Your Highness," Lavoisier nodded. "You might not be familiar with the latest bulk production method for soda ash. It was just invented by Dr. Leblanc. The process involves mixing salt and sulfuric acid, distilling it, then adding limestone and coal before putting it into a reverberatory furnace to be heated until it melts. This requires temperatures high enough to melt iron, so the reverberatory furnace is very suitable..."
As Lavoisier explained, Joseph realized that in this era, they were still using the calcination and crystallization method to mass-produce soda ash. Just reaching the high temperatures of over 1,000 degrees Celsius consumed enormous amounts of coal. Additionally, the sulfuric acid used in the process severely corroded the reverberatory furnace, necessitating its replacement every few years. No wonder Lavoisier mentioned needing a million-livre investment; setting up a soda ash production facility akin to a steel mill would indeed be extraordinarily expensive.
Joseph then remembered that soda ash was essentially sodium carbonate, also known as soda. It was one of the five pillars of the chemical industry, and many chemists had been driven to desperation in the quest to reduce its production costs.
But thankfully, thanks to his chemistry major roommates from his previous life, he hadn't completely forgotten his chemistry knowledge. For example, Joseph knew the "Hou's process" for producing soda ash—a method that could easily outpace the 18th-century methods in use.
Taking a deep breath, Joseph thought about how all profitable commercial products ultimately rely on the most basic raw material production. Fortunately, he still remembered some key chemistry knowledge from his previous life.
He smiled and said to Lavoisier, "Actually, I know a completely new method for producing soda ash, and the cost should be less than a tenth of the method you just described."
Lavoisier's eyes widened. If anyone else had made such a claim, he would have laughed them off immediately. But coming from the "Son of Heaven's Favor," he had to take it seriously.
"Are you serious?"
"Yes," Joseph replied, "The basic ingredients are salt, ammonia, and carbon dioxide." He didn't hold back, knowing that someone like Lavoisier wouldn't steal his idea and would need to help develop the production process. "First, you pass ammonia gas into a saturated salt solution to form ammonium chloride. Then you introduce carbon dioxide, which will produce…"
After Joseph explained the Hou's process, he waited for Lavoisier's exclamation. But after half a minute, Lavoisier instead frowned and shook his head.
"Your Highness, your method is excellent, but it might not be feasible."
Joseph was taken aback. What? Did he hear correctly? This was the Hou's process!
Lavoisier continued, "Your method requires a large amount of ammonia gas. If I recall correctly, the price of sal ammoniac is around 7 livres per kilogram. This would mean the production cost of your soda ash wouldn't be much cheaper than Dr. Leblanc's method. Moreover, the entire supply of sal ammoniac in Europe wouldn't be enough to sustain a monthly production of 50,000 kilograms of casein glue."
Joseph blinked in confusion. "Sal ammoniac? What is that?"
"It's the mineral used to produce ammonia gas..."
As Lavoisier continued to explain, Joseph's expression darkened. Sal ammoniac was ammonium chloride, and without advanced chemical technology, ammonia gas could only be obtained by calcining this expensive mineral.
This shot the costs through the roof.
He realized that the synthetic ammonia process only matured by the late 19th century, and Dr. Hou invented his soda ash process in the 20th century, by which time ammonia was dirt cheap. Producing synthetic ammonia required ultra-high-temperature and high-pressure reaction technology—impossible in the 18th century.
So, his dreams of kickstarting a chemical industry and a furniture revolution were just wishful thinking?
Seeing his disappointed expression, Lavoisier quickly added, "Your Highness, your ideas are incredibly innovative. It's just that sometimes, the old methods might still be the most practical…"
Joseph chuckled bitterly. He hadn't expected that the world-changing Hou's process could be outdone by the reverberatory furnace.
Then he remembered watching a documentary about Dr. Hou, detailing how he painstakingly refined the Solvay process step by step under very challenging conditions until he finally succeeded.
Wait, what was Dr. Hou's major improvement again? It had something to do with combined soda ash production—producing both soda ash and fertilizer to boost output and raw material efficiency.
And what about the Solvay process? How was it done again?
Joseph furrowed his brow, trying to recall the details from the documentary, muttering to himself, "Salt, ammonia, and carbon dioxide dissolve in water. Remove the precipitates, add limestone, and heat to react..."
Joseph suddenly paused. Wait, during the reaction, both ammonia and carbon dioxide are released and can be reused in the next reaction!
This would mean that the ammonia consumption would be very minimal. Although it wouldn't produce fertilizer like the Hou's process, it would bypass the ammonia issue.
Finally, he breathed a sigh of relief, realizing he had been fixated on using the most advanced technology when it might not be suitable for this era.
"Mr. Lavoisier," he said with a smile, "If I have another method that doesn't consume ammonia gas, could you help me design the production process?"
Lavoisier's eyes widened in astonishment. Could the Crown Prince truly be divinely inspired?! Producing soda ash was cutting-edge technology, and yet he had come up with two different methods within half an hour!
(End of Chapter)
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