Alchemy 101, and still the only 20 thread you need to read.




Sulfuric acid plus paper

When I worked in the chemistry lab for those 5½ years we would know when wiping up sulfuric acid when the paper towel burned itself up. Was supposed to wet them first with sodium bicarbonate before wiping up any acids. Had one guy get some pretty crazy looking burns a week before his wedding when he was pumping Nitric acid, overfilled the cup, and went to lean over and get the waste jar - sleeve slid up, hand holding the pump let go, and it made trails down his arm. I got little burns here and there over the years with HCL, Nitric, 30% peroxide, and Sulfuric. Sometimes wouldn't know if any sulfuric dripped on your pants til you washed them and they came out with little holes. They tried to scare us most when it came to using Hydrofluoric acid, since it didn't hurt on your skin, but could cause havoc to bones because of the calcium in them.

Who knew what I did there would eventually sort of carry over to where I am now, a company that hauls all sorts of haz & non-haz chemicals. Acrylic Acid is some pretty nasty stuff, especially in the summer time here when they reach anything over 30ºC sitting out in the sun and need the fire dept to run water over them trying to cool them down so they don't explode...

Had one driver email that he received a "birdbath" of UN2735 one day while hooking up hoses to a tank. Not a good thing to happen, but I've always pictured him fluffing around like a bird in a birdbath since then. o_O
 
Acids are primarily lacking of hydrogen atoms. So that is why you add water to acid and base to water.

Huh?
Sulfuric acid = H2SO4

Hydrochloric acid = H
Cl

Acetic acid = C2H4O2

Phosphoric acid = H3PO4

Nitric acid = HNO3

The only thing these all have in common is Hydrogen.
 
Has to do deeper in the chemical make up.

While they all have hydrogen, they don't have the number of hydrogen atoms that they want to have.
 
Got home yesterday, and the last 100 miles was icy roads ad blowing snow just to remind me that I was in fact in Wisconsin.

Monday, I head back to Appleton to start training. First load is a live load, live unload in state to one of the paper mills here in state. I didn't ask what chemical...

So...jumping in feet first.
 
Got home yesterday, and the last 100 miles was icy roads ad blowing snow just to remind me that I was in fact in Wisconsin.

Monday, I head back to Appleton to start training. First load is a live load, live unload in state to one of the paper mills here in state. I didn't ask what chemical...

So...jumping in feet first.

Just concentrate on the Live part. :D
 
Interesting side note. The receiver at the place I delivered to tells me that they are phasing out TDI from their process. Liabilities of having this stuff on site is just no longer worth it. BASF is slowly getting out of it also.... developing alternate MDI blends I hear. Fine by me.:thumbsup:

Y'know, I've always had this little picture in the back of my head of a bunch of "mad scientist" types (20 somethings that look like "Doc" in Back to the Future) saying "Lets pour this into this and see what happens.".:D
 
Training Day 1 in the bag.

Live loading consisted of showing up at the shipper, scaling at the moving and storage place across the street, and sitting in the truck until it was loaded by the customer, then scaling out loaded, getting paperwork, then leaving.

Unloading consisted of entering the bowels of a paper mill I probbly hauled out of almost 20 years ago, and going to a part of the mill I never would have though of, and backing up to a fitting on a wall, hooking up customer air, hooking up hoses, airing up the trailer, and then opening valves.

I'm pretty sure we did it in that order anyway. It's a little hard to follow what my trainer says. He talks SO MUCH, I tend to tune him out (not interested in your lawnmower dude) then when he throws out something important, I tend to miss it, so he has to say it again.

This is why - contrary to popular belief - I don't say much. People tune you out.

Used to have the same thing with chatty escorts on big loads...you never get used to it.

Tomorrow is another early start, and doing TWO loads, with a different trainer because mine is being sent to swap trailers down in Lansing, which would not be a good training day, so my dispatcher thinks this would be better. It's a good thing he agrees with me.

One of the loads is peroxide, so I'll be learning that in a hurry too. So that's cool.
 
So far so good on appendages and parts.

Todays load was a Non Haz. Calcium Stearate.

Calcium stearate - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In a quick skim of that page, I'm finding it's also used in food production.

Good lord I think if I read too much about too many chemicals, and may just move to NorCal, take off my shoes and move into a giant Redwood.

And I thought hauling 15 wide tanks to a gelatin plant in Iowa was bad...skittles, starburst...ugh...

Gross.
 

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