Re: A thought on LF

 >- magnesium sulphate ( Epsom Salts ) are made by pharmaceutical chemical manufacturers

Only some of the cheap stuff on the store shelves is synthetic and much of it is a byproduct of the production of salt from sea water. The synthetic method treats calcium carbonate or hydroxide with sulphuric acid. This synthetic method is more expensive.

Must be really super expensive since it would be pretty hard to transmute that calcium atom in to a magnesium atom so you could even create magnesium sulfate!

Either way, the pharmaceutical companies usually buy it rather than make it. Take it from an old lime chemist who knows.

Knows what?!!!  First of all magnesium sulfate is not produced from calcium carbonate or hydroxide.  Secondly,  if you really are a chemist then you would have known that most of the magnesium that is present in seawater is in the form of magnesium chloride, not magnesium sulfate.

So how is magnesium separated from seawater?  Well here, let me show you: 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnesium

"The Mg²⁺ cation is the second most abundant cation in seawater (occurring at about 12% of the mass of sodium there), which makes seawater and sea-salt an attractive commercial source of Mg. To extract the magnesium, calcium hydroxide is added to seawater to form magnesium hydroxide precipitate.

MgCl₂ + Ca(OH)₂ → Mg(OH)₂ + CaCl_2"

So now they are left with Magnesium chloride, not magnesium sulfate, which is otherwise known as "Epsom salts".  So how do you suppose they convert that magnesium hydroxide in to magnesium sulfate?  Hmmm......  Supposedly being a chemist you should know that they can react sulfuric acid on the magnesium oxide to form magnesium sulfate.

Mg(OH)₂ + H₂SO₄ ---> MgSO₄ + 2H₂O 

 So how is that less expensive.

Of course they can also use electrolysis to separate the pure magnesium metal first, then treat this chemically to produce magnesium sulfate.  But electrolysis is energy intensive and not very efficient.  So the cost would be prohibitive even before the chemical treatment.

So is magnesium sulfate really extracted directly from seawater as you supposedly claim?  Well let's see:

http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/optics/olympusmicd/galleries/polarized/magnesiumsulfate.html

"Magnesium oxide, as mined or extracted from seawater, acts as the starting point for commercial production of magnesium sulfate."

As a supposed "chemist" you should be aware of the fact that the mixing of magnesium oxide in water forms magnesium hydroxide.  And as I showed above magnesium hydroxide is converted in to magnesium sulfate by the action of sulfuric acid on the hydroxide!!!

The funniest part of your whole post is how the "liver flush" supporters automatically robo-clicked the "agree" button even though your whole post was filled with errors.  Of course they have done this on numerous other posts where other "liver flush" supporters were clearly wrong, but they clicked on "agree' regardless either because they either did not know what the real facts were or they simply did not care.  This is why the "liver flush" supporters have no credibility!!!

Alert Webmaster & Moderators

2 of 4 (50%) readers agree with this message.  Hide votes     What is this?
How do you feel about this message?     Agree     Disagree       Hide this question