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  How to produce anhydrous HCl gas using no special equipment - by Psychokitty
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To date I have never used Strike's and Fester's method for producing HCl gas. 
Reasons for this are as follows:

1. The necessity of laboratory glassware (no OTC hardware).
2. What seems to be a messy proceedure using table salt (but I wouldn't know 
   exactly as I've never tried it).
3. Difficult dismantling process (at least it seems to be more difficult than 
   mine).

I don't remember the exact journal reference that inspired my method, but I do 
know that it is described somewhere in Inorganic Syntheses Vol. I. 

Okay. First, here is what you need:

1. Beer bottle (transparant).
2. Plastic baby syringe (15 ml capacity) found at the pharmacy section at any 
   grocery store.
3. Four or so feet of ice-maker transparant-white polyethylene tubing found at 
   the hardware store. (I don't remember the exact diameter size. All I know is 
   that it IS the smallest size available.)
4. One table-leg stopper (rubber, beige or black). Another item of which I don't 
   know the size. Just take your beer bottle into the hardware store and see 
   which size fits snuggly on its top.
5. One aluminum tube that is the exact diameter size as the polyethylene tubing. 
   Found at the hardware store but don't know what they are used for. They are 
   sometimes made of brass.
6. One bottle of sulfuric acid drain cleaner.
7. One bottle of concentrated hardware store muriatic acid (32%?) 


Assembling the HCl generator is easy. 

1. Use the aluminum tubing to burrow two holes to the top of the table-leg 
   stopper. Use a twisting motion while appling pressure for about a minute 
   and eventually the tube will pop through.
2. Place the table-top stopper over the top of the beer bottle. It'll fit snugly.
3. Insert the polyethylene tubing into the middle-most hole and push through 
   until the tubing hits the bottom of the beer bottle. With scissors or a knife 
   cut off the polyethylene tubing about two inches from the top of the beer 
   bottle.
4. Take the entire table-top stopper inserted with the polyethylene tubing off 
   of the beer bottle. Pour into the beer bottle a volume of sulfuric acid about 
   an inch high off of the bottom of the beer bottle.
5. Replace the table-top stopper/polyethylene tubing on top of the beer bottle. 
   Insert the remaining tubing into the last hole of the stopper until about 
   two inches into the bottle. Cut tubing down to desired length.
6. Pour about twenty milliliters of concentrated HCl into a cup. Extract into 
   baby syringe until syringe is full (15 mL). NO, the HCl will not dissolve 
   any part of the syringe in any way. 

NEITHER THE HCl NOR THE SULFURIC ACID WILL REACT WITH ANY PIECE OF HARDWARE USED 
IN THIS SYSTEM. THIS SET-UP HAS BEEN TESTED MANY TIMES WITH SUCCESS.

7. Insert the syringe into the middle tubing (the one that extends to the bottom 
   of the beer bottle. End should be submerged in Sulfuric acid.) If insertion 
   is difficult, use a knife to scrape the inside of the tubing to allow the 
   syringe to fit more easily.
8. Securing the set-up with a clamp of some sort attached to a stand is optional 
   but desirable.
9. Have handy on the side a container full of water.


The use of this set-up to gas ones solvent/amine is just as easy.

1. With right hand, hold the tubing that will expel gas and lower into the 
   solvent/amine solution. 
2. With left hand slowly start to inject the HCl solution in the syringe into 
   the sulfuric acid. Once it hits the acid, there will be alot of fizzing and 
   foaming and IMMEDIATELY HCl gas will be pumped into the solvent/amine solution. 
   Foaming is sometimes a problem as it starts to reach the top of the beer 
   bottle. Simple wait a while and let it settle and then continue. Sometimes 
   certain brands of drain opener can cause excessive foaming. If this occurs, 
   switch brands.
3. One syringe is usually enough for an amount of about 30-40 g of product, but 
   if more is needed after all the HCl has been injected, slowly SLOWLY remove 
   the syringe from the tubing, first be letting a crack of air into the system. 
   BEWARE that this is suddenly going to bring a minor rush of HCl from the gassing 
   tube so make sure that it is submerged when doing this step. To continue, refill 
   the syringe and proceed as described above.
4. Once the gassing is complete, leave the syringe ATTACHED to the injection 
   tube and submerge the gassing tube in the container full of water (If the 
   syringe is not attached to the injecting tube, the following sequence will 
   not occur). Weigh down the gassing tube somehow as it must remain submerged. 
   In a few minutes (about five) the sulfuric acid will cool a bit causing a 
   sucking-back of the water into the beer-bottle. This will happen very suddenly 
   and very fast, but not to worry as the water will only go in as far as the top 
   of the beer bottle. This is actually an advantage as in this way one is able 
   to dilute the remaining HCl gas AND the remaining sulfuric acid. Of course the 
   bottle will get hot but if left aside for a few minutes it will eventually 
   cool making opening the container and dispensing with the acid solution an easy 
   task. If the bottle is opened for whatever reason without the above acid 
   dilution step, HCl gas will be everywhere.

Hope this method will prove useful to you my fellow bees, it sure has been for me!

