05/29/2003
Looking thru boiler feed water treatments in Kents, some strange thoughts come
to mind.  For power, we add oxygen to the mixture to both raise the
temperature and burn more fuel.  

Now, with nitro oxygens like nitromethane and oxygenates like methanal
alcohol, we never get stoichemic amounts of oxygen and only 50 percent by
weight or so oxygen.

But - look at Magnesium Nitrate Mg(NO3)2.  Its mole weight is 148.315 and the
weight of the oxygen is 95.996 grams.  About 66% oxygen by weight.  The
product of combustion is MgO - about 40.304 grams per mole for product vs
44.010 grams per mole for CO2.  Each mole of chemical gives 5 surplus moles of
oxygen.  

Then, at Oc, a 100 grams of h2o, the solubility of the chemical is 66.415
grams.  At 90c, 137.211 grams of chemical is suspended in 100 grams of h20.

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Then consider Magnesium bicarbonate - Mg(CHO3)2. It is soluble at any quantity
in water and decomposes at about 100c in water.

Each mole gives us one mole of magnesium, two moles of carbon and hydrogen and
six moles of oxygen - just as the water is boiling.

Unlike Magnesium Nitrate, these chemical is stoichemic in that all the fuel is
bound to all the oxygen. 

But they fall apart at low temperatures - giving free radicals for combustion.