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Politics : DON'T START THE WAR -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Hawkmoon who wrote (24737)	6/9/2003 9:38:24 PM
From: TigerPaw	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 25898

<font color=purple>They need a fermenter to make hydrogen</font> What makes you think it is a fermenter? All they have is a tank. They pour in coarse aluminum powder and hydrocloric acid, I'd guess about 30% by volume, and then capture the vented hydrogen gas in cylinder tanks with a moisture filter. When done they drain salty water from the bottom. <font color=purple> How about simply using electrolysis, maybe</font> Why be mobile if you have to tie into the power grid? Have you ever watched how slowly water separates into hydrogen and oxygen under electrolysis? Here they are trying to get wind direction for the artillary with incoming shells raining down and you want them to wait 30 or 45 minutes to get enough gas for a little balloon? What an idiot! A chemical reaction can fill the tanks in minutes and presumably they would fill the cylinders minutes before they need them making the process of launching a balloon to measure wind direction and speed almost immediate. Electrolysis could not create the pressure to fill cylinders, so there would need to be additional gas pumps, and pumping hydrogen is a bit dangerous as it has a tendancy to explode if there are sparks. Acid chemical reactions produce high pressure by the nature of the reaction. What possible scenario can you envision that would result in a reliable fermented mixture from such a setup?, especially more than one batch. It's not even suitable for brewing beer much less anthrax. How would you clean it? None of the openings are big enough. Besides aluminium the other chemical found in and on these trailers is sodium azide. <font color=blue>Tests of samples recovered from a fermenter tank, liquid from pipes and swabs from a wipe-down of the trailers so far haven't produced any evidence that the Iraqis were producing bioweapons or "anything else," one analyst acknowledged. "It is not necessary to get positive samples to confirm that this is a biowar generator," he said. The sampling process identified sludge found in the fermenter on one of the trailers as a mixture of sodium azide and urea, a caustic and puzzling mixture that isn't usually associated with any production process, including that for bioweapons. "The combination of chemicals we found makes no sense," one official said. </font> This official is of course, either ignorant, or plays someone ignorant for TV. realcities.com Sodium azide is the chemical that powers auto crash airbags. It produces a very quick reaction with the primary biproduct of Nitrogen gas. It is a fast and efficient way to a high pressure gas stream that will not burn, explode, or be toxic to the breathers, which is why millions of Americans trust their lives to it every day. The Urea, that is piss. It would be easier to understand the presence of piss if they really could brew beer in it. Most likely some kurd decided to take a leak down the tank when he captured it. Since Junior keeps staking his credibility on finding a smoking gun, or at least a smoking cigarette butt, I do expect that something will be planted that looks much more like a chemical weapon soon. usatoday.com TP