Re: Sodium Chlorate - Alternative to Sodium Chlorite to produce ClO2 ?

[Guest guest]

Hello Dave,

Sodium chlorate is used all the time to produce chlorine dioxide. It is used

because it produces chlorine and hydrogen at the same time it is producing the

chlorine dioxide. The chlorine and hydrogen can be stripped off of the stream

to form hydrochloric acid. Pulp and paper mills have many uses for chlorine and

hydrochloric acid, so they see the the by products of chlorine dioxide

production from sodium chlorate as a benefit.

Their goal is to bleach pulp. Since pulp is not listed as an eatable substance,

they are not concerned about the other impurities in the process.

If you want to purify water, you can pass electricity through a salt brine and

end up with what is termed " Mixed Oxidants. " This is how the MIOX pen works.

The MIOX company also has larger machines that can purify the water for small

cities. The " Mixed Oxidants " include chlorine, hypochlorous acid, chlorine

dioxide, chlorous acid, hydrochloric acid, chlorate, and chlorite. I may have

left some others out, but that is the general list. This mix is effective over

a wide temperature and PH range, and it works very well. I have used the MIOX

pen to purify wilderness water since the unit came out, and I highly recommend

it.

While sodium chlorate can be used to produce chlorine dioxide, we have to keep

in mind that MMS is not about chlorine dioxide. MMS forms chlorous acid which

happens to have a little bit of chlorine dioxide in it. Sodium chlorate is not

used to form chlorous acid. When discussing this with those in the food

processing industry, I was informed that when sodium chlorate is partially

activated, it has too many impurities in it that taint the food. Sodium

chlorite, when it is properly activated, is much purer and is much more

effective.

Tom

--- In , " Dave T " <balderdash3928@...>

wrote:

>

> This is a rather technical subject directed at researchers with a fairly high

level of technical expertise, and I am also seeking opinions in specialist

chemistry forums.

>

> The question concerns the possibility of using sodium chlorate as an

alternative generation medium for chlorine dioxide in the MMS application. The

point being to make the MMS concept even more widely available, even cheaper,

and able to be produced almost anywhere in the world with the simplest of

equipment, just common salt, a 12V power source and a glass jar.

>

> I have seen instructions on the net (probably in error I now feel) which

purport to describe a method of producing sodium chlorite by the electrolysis of

sodium chloride (common salt) solution see here :-

>

> http://www.ehow.com/how_5188671_make-sodium-chlorite.html

>

> However other information on the net, and a reply in specialist chemistry

forums tells me the principle product of this process is sodium chlorate, not

chlorite.

>

> I have constructed the processing cell described above and after allowing the

cell to run for several days on a 12V DC supply drawing about 200mA with about

400mg of NaCl dissolved in 1 litre of water, the gassing at the carbon

electrodes ceased. It produced a solution which has obviously some free chlorine

or chlorine dioxide being released from the slight smell of chlorine.

>

> Although the resultant electrolyte is mainly sodium chlorate, not chlorite,

although there may be some chlorite as a minority by product of the electrolysis

(I am trying to find this out from chemists) reacting a few drops of the

electrolyte with 10% citric acid solution gives a noticeable smell of chlorine,

possibly also chlorine dioxide, which I believe smells the same, although I

appreciate it is very different chemically from chlorine.

>

> Sodium chlorate is used in industrial process to produce chlorine dioxide by

reduction with a strong acid, (hydrochloric acid) and the reaction with citric

acid appears to also do the job. However my chemistry is not good enough to be

sure what is happening. Maybe only chlorine is being produced.

>

> Has any member of the group experimented along similar lines to use sodium

chlorate instead of sodium chlorite in the MMS application? If so could you

please post your experience and results, or if there are any members with

sufficient chemistry expertise could they please comment on the questions posed.

>

> There are a number of US patents (search the patent database for Electrolysed

Saline) for various methods of electrolysing dilute NaCl solutions, some of

which claim spectacular therapeutic applications for the resultant electrolyte

in disinfection of wounds and treatment of diabetic ulcers. It is probable that

chlorine dioxide is the active agent, which suggests that some variations of the

electrolytic process that produces mainly sodium chlorate also generates some

chlorine dioxide.

>

> While sodium chlorite(MMS) is fairly easily available, it is not so easily

available or cheap as common salt, which can be very easily electrolysed to

sodium chlorate. If chlorine dioxide can be produced from the chlorate in a

similar manner to the MMS(chlorite) process in vivo the availability of the

process would be even more globally universal.

>

> If this works then equivalent " MMS " could be made anywhere from common salt,

and not even sodium chlorite would be needed as a basic material. The

implications of that would be obvious to anyone who has an understanding of the

potential uses of MMS.

>

> I am not great at chemistry, actually an engineer, but please don't hold back

with the reaction equations or explanations, I'll try to follow along.

>