In Part II of ChemicalConsultant's analysis, he addresses the residue left in the mobile labs and the quality of hydrogen assumed in the CIA's explanation of the hydrogen production explanation.

5. I am surprised that both the Iraqi and “Russian” systems use an excess of aluminum instead of an excess of sodium hydroxide. Since the product sodium aluminate is soluble in water at the amount of water used (see the Handbook of Chemistry and Physics), there would be almost no residue if there were an excess of sodium hydroxide relative to aluminum. There is no explanation why so much aluminum would be used, especially when using excess sodium hydroxide would mean that the tank would only need to be washed out, instead of removing an alleged residue. Once it became apparent that the trailers were in danger of being captured, I think the Iraqis put the described residue in the reactor.

6. The Process Description describes how the solids are added, the reactor sealed and then water is added. Since only 25-30 liters are added and the useable capacity is given as 633 liters (see Comment and assessment- Reactor capacity), there are 600 liters of space occupied by air above the reactants. Air Products data for nitrogen (MW= 28) close to air (effective MW =29) show that 1 m3 weighs 1 kg/ 0.862 m3 = 1.16 kg so 600 liters of air weighs about 1.16x0.6 = about 700 g. Thus, if the actual amount of hydrogen were made to fill the 5 bottles to 50 bar (this means not following the Process Description but rather the amount I calculated in the last sentence of 4.) , the mix pumped into them would be 0.84/ (0.7+0.84) = about 55% by weight hydrogen. This would substantially lower the buoyancy of the balloons reducing the weight of instruments that could be carried by the radiosonde balloon. Furthermore, no explanation is given for why only 10% of the available reaction volume was used.

7. In the Process Trials section the report claims that a 2.5-3.3 m3 balloon was inflated from the 5 cylinders filled to a pressure of 50 bar. The Iraqis deserve the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for making 0.21-0.26 kg of hydrogen using 1-1.5 kg of NaOH! Even if the bottles were really filled only with hydrogen at 50 bar, only 3 to 4 balloons could be filled and then the more than 3 hour process would have to start again. On the other hand, one standard industrial gas cylinder filled to standard commercial pressure would fill two balloons. Since these cylinders have been available for decades, I find it hard to believe that there have been nothing like them available in Iraq. Iraqi refineries could produce hydrogen, either as a byproduct, by cracking a refinery liquid or gas or reacting petroleum coke, another refinery product with steam. Coke gas was used for observation balloons in the US Civil War. 20th Century technology removes the impurities in coke gas leaving nearly pure hydrogen.

The Notes on the Process section states the target purity for the hydrogen product is 99.9%. This is impossible with the on-site process unless those Nobel Prize nominee Iraqis also converted nitrogen into hydrogen while the gases were going from the reactor to the cylinders. The target purity is routinely achieved by conventional hydrogen manufacture which is probably where the Republican Guard got their specification. Maybe this is the hint that conventionally manufactured hydrogen was available in Iraq. Also, since Russia has modern chemical technology, I’m surprised nobody asked the Iraqis why the Russians would have made a small water dependent hydrogen production system. Such a reactor couldn’t work in most of Russia for a large part of the year because the water would freeze.

In Part III tomorrow, ChemicalConsultant addresses the engineering of the mobile labs in relation to the hydrogen production explanation, as well as the folly of using these facilities instead of simply buying trucks to transport prefilled containers of hydrogen.

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» Iraq's Mobile Labs from Security Watchtower
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» Iraq's Mobile Labs from Security Watchtower
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