How to Make Nitric Acid: The Best Method

Many ask how make nitric acid because they want to make nitric acid in the lab rather than buying from the market. There are different ways to make nitric acid in the lab and in industry. Using the correct way to make nitric acid will ensure high concentration acid without impurities.

How Make Nitric Acid in Lab

It is easy to make nitric acid in a lab rather than producing it in the industry. You can get sodium nitrate or potassium nitrate from the market to start the process. You may also need sulphuric acid. You need to put the metal nitrate in the glass flask and add sulphuric acid to it. You need to heat this mixture to make the nitric acid. It is essential to make it airtight as vapors are dangerous for humans. You can channel the vapors in a condensation chamber. As the sulphuric acid boil with the sodium nitrate, nitric acid vapors form. These vapors will form liquid nitric acid in the condensation chamber. It is the best way to make nitric acid in the lab as you get a high-concentration product without impurities.

Ostwald Process

It is the most widely used method to make nitric acid on an industrial scale. You can use this method to produce large amounts of nitric acid at a lower rate. You can complete the Ostwald process in four steps.

1- Nitric Oxide Formation

It is the first step for making the nitric acid in the Ostwald process. You have to introduce the Ammonia and Oxygen into the catalyst chamber. It is essential to measure the concentration of these gases at the start as you need to add one part of ammonia and eight parts of oxygen. You may have to get the chamber with platinum gauze lining as it will act as the catalyst for the process. The process starts at a high temperature. You can heat the chamber to reach a temperature of 600 degrees Celsius. You will get four molecules of nitric oxide and six water molecules from this reaction. You can expect the reaction to continue till ninety-five percent ammonia converts to nitric oxide.

2- Nitrous Oxide Formation

It is the second oxidation of the NO molecule. You will understand how make nitric acid better when you follow all the steps of the process. Nitrous oxide has two oxygen atoms with one nitrogen atom. You have to reduce the gas temperature to 150 degrees Celcius to start this reaction. Two molecules of NO will react with one oxygen molecule to form two molecules of NO₂. It is better to continue this reaction at 50 degrees Celcius to completion of the reaction.

3- Formation of Nitric Acid

You can get nitric acid with sixty-eight percent concentration when you complete this step. This step involves showering water on the NO₂ gas. You will get HNO₃ and NO as a result. You can recycle the NO to the first step and continue the process. As you shower water on the NO₂, it will absorb some gas to make a dilute solution of HNO₃. The concentration is more than a few percent when you shower it the first time. You have to repeat the showering process with the same water many times to get a 68 percent concentration. The formation of nitric acid from the NO₂ is known as absorption because the water absorbs the NO₂ to make the acid. Some also call this chamber the recycle tower.

4- Concentration Enhancement

You need to get a dehydration agent to remove most water from the nitric acid solution. You cannot sell the low concentration of nitric acid in the market because people have to pay more money for transportation. You will get a lower rate for the acid with less concentration or more impurities. Sulphuric acid will work as the dehydrating agent in this reaction. It will absorb all water from the HNO₃ to make it concentrated. You have to convert the HNO₃ into vapor form by heating. You can pass these vapors from the Sulphuric acid to get a high concentration of Nitric acid in bulk quantity. This acid has many applications in industries. You can market your product on different channels or use it to make other chemicals in your industry.