Thankyou to Dick Johnson for your gentle correction to my error (ph). I
hated to change the thread title, but I was too embarrassed not to. My
father is a retired chemical engineer, and although 88 is still an active
surfer on the web and sometimes googles me. He will be appalled if he sees
it. Your contribution to the following question would be welcomed Dick.
Randy wrote:
> Yes, it can be buffered with any of the above, but baking soda (sodium
> bicarbonate) is probably the best. Dr. Blaise LeBlanc has developed a
> table
> to determine the amount needed, which will likely be submitted to ABJ for
> publication. It doesn't take much--about 1/4 gram per thousand pounds of
> syrup! This is because the syrup indeed has a low pH, but very little
> actual acidity (acidity is measured by the amount of base needed to
> neutralize the acid).
>
> This may be a bit more chemistry than you wanted, but I hope it makes
> sense.
Actually Randy I just can't seem to understand how so little could buffer
it, and would like MORE chemistry.
pH is the negative logarithm of the hydrogen ion concentration.
In water at room temperature the concentration of hydrogen ions is one times
ten to the minus 7 moles per litre, or pH 7.
If we round the analysis of my HFCS pH (3.7) to 4, then it has one times ten
to the minus 4 moles per litre of H+
From here on I need help to understand. It seems to me that to buffer the
HFCS to neutral (pH7) is going up three orders of magnitude or 1000 times.
The starting point is pH 4, or ten to minus 4 moles per litre, so you need
1000 times that, or ten to the minus one moles per litre.
If each molecule of sodium bicarbonate buffered one hydrogen ion (maybe a
stupid assumption, I don't know, but I would think it couldn't be MORE than
this), then would you need one tenth moles per litre to buffer one litre?
But I think that a mole of sodium bicarbonate is
NaHCO3: 23 + 1 + 12 + (16x3) = 84 The mass of one mole of sodium
bicarbonate is its relative formula mass expressed in grams, ie 84g.
So, to buffer one litre would be 8.4 grams???
And that is for one litre, not 1000 pounds of syrup (about 600 litres) and
is a lot more than 1/4 gram.
So, I am confused.
Stan
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