Pyrite (FeS2) was once used to produce sulphur for sulphuric acid. It will be again at the freelance HO-scale multinational Cheverie Mountain Geological Research Facility to be constructed in my Cheverie Mountain Railway layout. Many pyrite-rich samples like these were collected from the shale cliffs at Walton, Nova Scotia this week.
Preparing a car load with appropriate ore sizes from these large pieces.
Are you sure you want to use Iron Sulfice as load in your freight cars? It will be attracted to the motors due to magnatism. Also not good for the locomotive gears.
Jim
Modeling BNSF and Milwaukee Road in SW Wisconsin
As a physicist with the Canadian Department of National Defence it was my job to design, build, test, and transfer to industry modern naval sonars. Designing equipment to operate and survive in ocean environments gave me almost three decades of experience with all kinds of technologies. These included adhesives, elastomers, piezoceramics, electromagnetism, electrostrictive materials, metals, polymers, fluids of all kinds and cork (unique zero Poisson's ratio makes it a good material for model rail beds). We used cork underwater too. Several of my inventions have been archived at the Canada Science and Technology Museum in Ottawa. Some of my sonars are in use by the US, UK, and Australia among others. I love inventing and I get great satisfaction solving problems that appear to have no solution. Did this for NATO back in the Cold War days - 1986. Even published an unclassified paper on it in the American Journal of Physics. Love science and model railroading!
Cold or hot sulfuric acid production? Pyrite burns producing SO2 and iron oxide. The SO2 can be scrubbed out of the exhaust to make sulfuric acid. This is how most sulfuric acid is produced at places like copper smelters. It's an interesting non carbon energy source, though materials of construction are a problem.
There is also a wet, cool route. There are bacteria that will consume metal sulfides in the presence of oxygen and water, excreting metal oxide and sulfuric acid. This isn't a commercial route but is the most common source of acid mine drainage. It might be the mission of a research facility to commercialize this process.
By the way, iron sulfide is almost totally non magnetic.
Redore By the way, iron sulfide is almost totally non magnetic.
Wonderful information on sulfuric acid. Freshly exposed pyrites in Nova Scotia due to new construction of quarries, highways, and industrial/commercial areas is a common source of undesireable sulphuric acid into some of our lakes and rivers. Mitigation efforts can be seen in some of the badly affected areas along our Eastern Shore.
I use a strong magnet to confirm pyrites I find - there is a very weak pull as the magnet moves across the sample. I also use the metal geology hammer to see if sparks fly - they usually do.