[Stoves] air particles

[frank]

Dear stovers;
Just thinking more about this.

Air particles and tar

Using simple wet chemistry equipment

Start with a fish aquarium pump that is made so you can attach a tube to 
both sides. Regulate flow and time. Place 500cc water in a sep funnel,  
a one hole stopper with a short glass tube inserted on top. Attach tube 
from the sep funnel to the pump to draw air out of the cylinder. 
Resulting bubbling room air into the water for a known amount and time. 
Close the bottom valve on the sep funnel and remove the pump and replace 
the stopper with the glass one that comes with funnel. Add some pet 
ether (I use for oil and grease test) and shake. Then drain the water 
fraction to a) measure the turbidity with a nepholometer b) glass fiber 
filter paper, dry and weigh for Suspended Solids (wt/hr)  c) centrifuge 
for microscopic analysis to see what the particles are made of by looks(?).

For the Pet Ether fraction it is drained through potassium sulfate (to 
remove water) into a test tube The pet ether and oil-tar in the tube is 
slowly dried using low heat. Then a Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) test 
using Potassium dichromate and H2SO4  to determine the tar  oil, grease 
or whatever is in the air and extracted in Pet Ether (or a better 
solvent someone else knows of).   This test is a good one for measuring 
low levels of oil in sea water or any water.

I  hope we can keep things simple so more of us can share in the research.

Regards
Frank




-- 
Frank Shields
Soil Control Lab
42 Hangar way
Watsonville, CA  95076
(831) 724-5422 tel
(831) 724-3188 fax
frank at compostlab.com
www.compostlab.com