First you need to prepare a dilute lye solution. Label an eyedropper bottle or squirt bottle "Lye-poison" so the bottle will not confused with something else. Work in a sink so that any spills will be contained. Lye gives off eye-stinging fumes when mixed with water. To avoid inhaling fumes, hold your breath and wear goggles while doing the following procedure.
Working over a sink, put 8 teaspoons of distilled water in a sturdy glass then stir in 1 teaspoon of lye. Stir until the lye is dissolved. Heat will be generated as the lye dissolves and the glass may get fairly hot. You may want to close your eyes to avoid eye-stinging fumes, taking a peek periodically.
Pour the lye solution into a labeled eyedropper bottle or squirt bottle.
If you are using pH paper, tear off several 1/4" pieces and put them on a piece of white paper on a plate.
1. First, you might want to pour the sea water through a coffee filter to remove any scum.
2. If the starting material does not contain magnesium hydroxide (sea water does contain magnesium hydroxide), add some, or add a teaspoon of Epsom salts per gallon of water.
3. Pour the sea water into a stainless steel pot. Slowly, drop-by-drop, add the lye solution WHILE STIRRING. Every ten drops or so, test the pH. You might want to take at least 3 to 5 samples from different regions of the liquid. If you are using pH paper, the goal is to bring the pH up to 9.5, then stop to be on the safe side. If you are using a pH meter, stop just before you get to pH 10.78.
A white precipitate which includes m-state elements will form.
CAUTION: You must proceed slowly and patiently so that you do not exceed pH 10.78 with a meter or pH 9.5 with pH paper. If you go higher than pH 10.78, you might get a "Gilcrest precipitate" of toxic heavy metals. It is alleged that the Dead Sea salt water does not produce any Gilcrest precipitate. This has not been proven and should not be assumed.
4. Once you are at the correct pH, stop.
5. Pour the solution into a clean glass jar or test tube.
6. The white precipitate (slurry) slowly settles on the bottom of the jar. Let the slurry settle overnight. If metals or other toxins have been ruled out by prior testing of your starting material, the slurry is probably mostly calcium hydroxide, Mg(OH)2, lye, and a small amount of m-state.
You can speed this settling process with a centrifuge, which forces the precipitate to settle rapidly. Inexpensive second-hand centrifuges may be found at American Science and Surplus,
http://www.sciplus.com.7. Using a large syringe (or siphon), remove the liquid above the slurry.
8. Add distilled water to the precipitate (filling the jar), stir thoroughly, and let it settle again for at least 4 to 5 hours, preferably overnight.
9. Repeat steps 7 and 8 at least three times to thoroughly wash the precipitate. This should remove almost all of the lye. The remaining lye can be neutralized with HCl or distilled white vinegar as well. Washing three times is intended to reduce the dissolved "impurities" (like salt, for example) by 87.5%. Four washes would provide a 93.75% reduction, five washes a 96.875% reduction, and so on.
At this point, the precipitate is likely to contain some m-state, milk of magnesia Mg(OH)2, calcium, and perhaps some impurities.
Pour the precipitate and water into a stainless steel pot on a stove burner. A gas burner is preferred over electric because any magnetic fields from the electric burner may drive off some of the m-state material. Cover the pot with a lid to contain the m-state, and boil the solution for 5 minutes to sterilize it. Be careful not to spill the hot solution! Let it cool back to room temperature and recheck the pH to make sure it hasn't exceeded pH 9.
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DISCUSSION: WHEN TO BOIL THE SOLUTION
In this document, we suggested that you not boil the solution until you have made the washed precipitate. However, boiling can be done earlier in the procedure with certain advantages. Here are four times that boiling could be done, with a discussion of the pros and cons of each:
1. Boil before adding lye solution.
PROS: Faster reaction, faster precipitation. CONS: You may spill the hot lye solution. You may inhale fumes.
2. Boil while adding lye solution.
PROS: Faster reaction, faster precipitation. CONS: You may spill the hot lye solution. You may inhale fumes. Danger of lye spurting out of pot. Not recommended.
3. Boil and cool after adding lye solution.
PROS: No danger of inhaling fumes. Little danger of spilling hot lye solution. CONS: Slower reaction, slower precipitation.
4. Boil the washed precipitate (recommended).
PROS: No danger of inhaling fumes. No danger of spilling hot lye solution. pH is unlikely to change after boiling because the reaction has already taken place. CONS: Slower reaction, slower precipitation. If safety is the main issue, this seems to be the best method.
Caution: If you boil the solution on an electric burner, the magnetic field in the burner may "blow off" some of the m-state materials, resulting in a small yield. This can be minimized by adding a source of sodium (such as sodium hydroxide or salt) to the solution before boiling.
Since sea water contains sodium in salt, none of the boiling methods will be a problem with sea water. However, if you are starting with low-sodium fresh water, add a sodium source (such as table salt or lye solution) before boiling.
Once the precipitate and water have been sterilized, the next step is required to concentrate the m-state.