I learned from these wiki pages that acetone can be produced from calcium acetate, which can be produced by the reaction of eggshells and vinegar. However, I couldn't find the required temperature. Would it be possible to produce acetone vapours by simply heating calcium acetate over a natural gas flame (~1500 degrees C)?
asked Mar 26, 2016 at 12:06
![sadljkfhalskdjfh's user avatar](data:image/svg+xml,<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="64" height="64"><rect fill-opacity="0"/></svg>){kind=small}
-
Did you look in footnotes 3 and 4 for Wikipedia's Calcium Acetate article? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calcium_acetate#Uses– MaxWMar 26, 2016 at 17:56
-
1There was a question about eggshells which seems to have been deleted. Evidently there is a problem with disposing of eggshells and much of the waste eggshell ends up in a dump. This reaction would yield acetone and CaO, but both probably aren't worth the cost of the acetic acid and heat.– MaxWMar 26, 2016 at 19:22
-
I know it's impractical, but I still want to try it because I'm rather interested.– sadljkfhalskdjfhMar 27, 2016 at 2:05
-
1Sorry, didn't mean the cost analysis to be a put down. I thought it was an interesting notion given the eggshell problem. Who knew that getting rid of eggshells would be a problem? The bigger problem with eggshells of course is that there are probably numerous plants generating them. It would cost prohibitive to ship all eggshells to one plant in US for conversion. So you'd need conversion plants near eggshell producers. Interesting problem...– MaxWMar 27, 2016 at 2:18
Add a comment
|
1 Answer
Calcium acetate decomposes starting at around 160 degrees Celsius, according to Wikipedia. So yes, it is definitely possible to do so in a gas flame.
answered Jun 9, 2016 at 13:48