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Downstairs
Published in Michael Allaby, Conservation at Home, 2019
Nitrate from excessive fertilizer use is sometimes present in certain foods, especially spinach. Saltpetre (potassium nitrate) or Chile saltpetre (sodium nitrate) are used as preservatives, especially for ‘cured’ meats such as ham and bacon. They are not added to proprietary baby foods (see clean water, page 38). Nitrate used in curing is reduced to nitrite, and nitrite is often used directly. It improves the colour and flavour of the meat and at the same time kills bacteria, most importantly Clostridium botulinum, which produces one of the most potent of all poisons and causes botulism. The nitrite also combines with amines which are naturally present in the meat to form nitrosamines. Very large doses of nitrosamines cause cancer in experimental animals; thus the use of nitrates and nitrites is strictly regulated even though they have not been proved to cause cancer in human beings. The incidence of stomach cancer, which nitrosamines might be expected to cause, has in fact been falling for some years.
Components of Energetic Compositions
Published in John A. Conkling, Christopher J. Mocella, Chemistry of Pyrotechnics, 2019
John A. Conkling, Christopher J. Mocella
Notably, this is a strongly endothermic reaction—the reaction takes in heat instead of releases it—with a heat of decomposition value of +75.5 kcal/mol of KNO3; consequently, high-energy output fuels must be used with saltpeter to achieve rapid-burning rates. When mixed with a simple organic fuel such as lactose, potassium nitrate may burn with some difficulty and stop at the potassium nitrite (KNO2) stage in its decomposition (Shimizu, Fireworks—The Art, Science and Technique 1981).
Approaches to Waste Rock Disposal
Published in Karlheinz Spitz, John Trudinger, Mining and the Environment, 2019
Karlheinz Spitz, John Trudinger
Potassium was first isolated from the ashes of plants. It is an essential nutrient and electrolyte, involved in maintenance of blood pressure, muscle and organ function. Potassium metal is soft, silver white and highly reactive. Potassium salts are used as plant fertilisers while potassium nitrate is a component of gunpowder. Potassium minerals are widespread within the earth, particularly orthoclase feldspar which is a component of most granite rocks. Potassium salts are present in brines and evaporites, from which commercial supplies are obtained.
The Experimental and Simulation Results of LIVE-J2 Test—Investigation on Heat Transfer in a Solid–Liquid Mixture Pool
Published in Nuclear Technology, 2023
Hiroshi Madokoro, Takuya Yamashita, Xiaoyang Gaus-Liu, Thomas Cron, Beatrix Fluhrer, Ikken Sato, Shinya Mizokami
Two different simulant materials were used in the LIVE-J2 test. Ceramic beads and nitrate salt simulate the higher-melting-temperature oxidic components and the lower-melting-temperature metallic components, respectively. The ceramic spheric beads of RIMAX produced by ZIRPRO consisted of 58% ZrO2 and 37% SiO2, having the size of 2.5 to 2.8 mm. The nitrate salt was prepared at KIT, and a binary eutectic mixture of sodium nitrate and potassium nitrate was chosen as in other LIVE experiments. In the LIVE-J2 experiment, the eutectic composition of 50 mol % NaNO3-50 mol % KNO3 was selected, which has the eutectic temperature of 220°C to 222°C (Ref. 13). The thermal properties of ceramic beads and nitrate salt are described in Tables II and III, respectively.
Low cost nutrient-rich oil palm trunk bagasse hydrolysate for bio-succinic acid production by Actinobacillus succinogenes
Published in Preparative Biochemistry & Biotechnology, 2022
Nurul Adela Bukhari, Soh Kheang Loh, Abdullah Amru Indera Luthfi, Peer Mohamed Abdul, Jamaliah Md Jahim
Although lesser sugar was consumed in the presence of tryptone, the cells had registered a higher bio-SA yield than it performed in YE, as expressed in gram of bio-SA per gram of glucose and xylose consumed. From Figure 1a, it is clear that the inorganic sources of nitrogen, i.e., NaNO3, NH4NO3, and (NH4)2SO4, were not preferred by A. succinogenes 130Z for bio-SA synthesis. In fact, these inorganic salts had negatively affected bio-SA synthesis, giving negligible bio-SA titer (0.57–0.62 g/L) and yield (below 0.1 g/g) in all supplemented samples. The available nitrogen-based nutrient in these salts to necessitate cells growth was probably only minimal, and largely not bioavailable due to the strong covalent bonds exhibited. This finding corresponded with another study by Liu et al.[11] utilizing similar nitrogen sources—potassium nitrate and ammonium chloride. Nevertheless, not all organic sources of nitrogen were favored by A. succinogenes 130Z in this study. Some of them such as casein, ME and PW showed only a marginal increase in bio-SA accumulation (1.03–1.63 g/L).
Comprehensive characterization of firing byproducts generated from small arms firing of lead-free frangible ammunition
Published in Journal of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene, 2022
Ryan McNeilly, Jacob Kirsh, John Hatch, Ariel Parker, Jerimiah Jackson, Steven Fisher, John Kelly, Christin Duran
Also consistent with previous research, image analysis revealed a potassium-rich “bubble” morphology common in the emissions from both weapons (Grabinski et al. 2017). The hollow center could indicate volatile components, which has been observed for particles emitted during the combustion of diesel fuel (Mathis et al. 2004; Tumolva et al. 2010). EDS analysis of TEM samples also indicated the presence of elements undetectable by ICPMS, such as nitrogen. Potassium nitrate is a common compound associated with firearms as a flash suppressant, so combusted potassium nitrate could contribute to the particulate observed in this study. Since firing emission particles primarily form through condensation of vaporized metals, and combustion-generated ultrafine particles can fuse or adsorb gaseous components onto their surface, it is possible that some of the gases detected (specifically hydrochloric and sulfuric acid, and nitrous oxides) contributed to the chlorine and sulfur detected via EDS (Meng and Caddy 1997).