Process of Manufacture and Employment of Humic Acid and its Compounds.
Year: 1894

page_text: Date of Application, 14th Nov., 1894
Complete Specification Left, 13th Aug., 1895-Accepted, 28th Sept., 1895
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Process of Manufacture and Employment of Humic Acid and its
Compounds.
We, LOUIS GAUTREAU, Commission Agent, EUGÈNE CHARBONNIER, Banker,
both of No. 82 Rue de Rivoli, and EMILE SERRANT, Chemical Engineer, of
No. 110 Rue Blomet, all in the City of Paris, France, do hereby declare the nature
of this invention to be as follows:-
The present application has for its object the commercial manufacture, the
artificial production and the application under special conditions of humic acid and
its compounds as chemical manures and fertilizing substances for agriculture.
Humic acid (or humus) which also bears the different names of ulmic acid, crenic,
ulmine, and terreau according to its different conditions, is at the present time
recognised as the principal cause of the fertility of soils and the most perfect nutritive
substance for vegetation of all kinds.
Humic acid (or humus) fertilises the most sterile soils; used in the proportion of
one or two per cent. it renders the most arid sands cultivable.
It has also the double advantage of imparting cohesion to sandy soils, and of
lightening clayey soils.
Humic acid has an acid reaction; it is an organic acid which only produces its
effects by means of its neutralization and saturation by a base, lime or potash
for example. This consideration is taken into account in the mode of its preparation
and employment.
40
The chemical formula for pure humic acid is C10H12,012; but for practical
applications to agriculture, as a chemical manure and fertilising agent complex
substances and to a certain extent slightly variable in composition resulting from
waste vegetable matter may be added to the humus or humic acid.
The purest humic acid results from the decomposition of wood and ligneous
materials under the influence of oxygen and damp; it is more especially noticeable
in the kind of brown earth which is found in the hollow trunks of old trees.
But in order to obtain humic acid at a cheap price and under practical conditions,
it is necessary to obtain it by industrial means, and this is the object of the present
invention.
PREPARATION OR MANUFACTURE.
For this purpose we employ as stock material vegetable refuse and ligneous refuse
of all kinds including peat. These refuses are treated so as to completely impregnate
them with water to which sulphuric acid is added in the proportion of acid varying
from 5 to 25 per cent. or more according to the nature and condition of division or of
decomposition of the material. The reaction is allowed to continue for several days,
care being taken to agitate and shake the whole mass so as to facilitate the aeration
and the chemical action.
Any chemical agent may also be employed for facilitating the disaggregation of
the substance as well as the action of the water and the oxidation.
When the mass has arrived at a complete state of disaggregation and
a more or less dark color
transformation, of a pasty consistency, and of
resembling a kind of blacky mud, the mass is compressed to cause as much of
the liquid as possible to flow out, then this mass still damp or nearly dry is
treated with lime so as to neutralise and completely saturate the humic acid and

page_text: the sulphuric acid and thus form a product which the inventors call “Sulfumate
of Lime."
In
If instead of lime potash is employed sulfumate of potash is obtained.
the same way a sulfumate of ammonia or sulfumates of any other base may be
obtained.
Instead of a simple base phosphate of lime may also be employed as the
saturating element, and sulfumophosphate of lime will then be obtained, which
is much preferable to the phosphates and superphosphates of lime for any
application.
When the saturation or neutralization of the mass is complete it is caused
to dry for a considerable time, and the product may then be stored or placed
in sacks.
The saturations are effected according to the law of equivalents by freeing the
humus from the sulphuric acid and treating by lime or by potash a humate of lime
or a humate of potash is simply obtained which products are valuable as chemical
manures.
But in practice it is preferable to employ the sulfumates of lime or of potash or
of ammonia and the sulfumophosphate of lime.
These chemical manures, besides the special property of the humus being an agent
of nitrification constitute also a perfect nutritive food for plants; and beyond their
proper and immediate action, they strongly facilitate the action and the effects of all
the principal fertilisers contained in the soil, and in the atmosphere, which explains
their remarkable properties.
These manures with a base of humic acid may be employed for the cultivation
and the production of all kinds of vegetables, the base being capable of variation
according to the special requirements for different kinds of cultivation.
Dated this 14th day of November 1894.
ALLISON BROS.,
Agents for the Applicants.
Process of Manufacture and Employment of Humic Acid and its
Compounds.
We, LOUIS GAUTREAU, Commission Agent, EUGENE CHARBONNIER, Banker,
both of No. 82 Rue de Rivoli, and EMILE SERRANT, Chemical Engineer, of
No. 110 Rue Blomet, all in the City of Paris, France, do hereby declare the nature
of this invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be
particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement:-
The object of the present invention is the industrial production of a new manure
obtained by the combination of humic acid and of its compounds with certain
mineral salts serving, by their subsequent decomposition, to produce in the soil,
reactions which will be hereinafter explained.
As is well known bumic acid which is the principal cause of the fertility of soils
and the most perfect nutritive substance for vegetation, is an organic acid which
only produces its effects after neutralization or saturation by a base, potash or lime
for example.
Our new manure the manufacture of which will be described later on is in
principle composed of humate of lime, of carbonate of lime and of sulphate of
potash.
After being spread over the soil, and under the action of moisture, the
sulphate of potash reacts upon the carbonate of lime, and by double decomposition,
produces sulphate of lime and carbonate of potash, energetically dissolving humic
acid.

page_text: It is this special feature relative to the dissolving of the humic acid which
characterises our invention.
If further, instead of neutralizing the humic acid with lime, it is neutralized
with potash or ammonia, humates of potash or of ammonia will be obtained, which
added to chemical manures such as nitrates, ammoniacal salts, phosphates and salts
of potash, constitute a really complete manure.
The process of preparation of our manure is as follows:-
As first or stock materials we employ peat and all vegetable and ligneous refuse
transformed into humic acid by any process of oxidation; but we prefer to make
use of the following. These materials are, by any means, impregnated with water
containing a proportion of from five to twenty-five per cent. of sulphuric acid.
The yield of acid varies according to the nature and the state of division or of
decomposition of the materials treated, and the proportion of 25% may even be
exceeded.
The reaction of the materials impregnated with acidulated water is allowed to
continue for several days, and such materials are agitated from time to time so as
to facilitate the aeration of the mass and the chemical action.
When the mass has arrived at a complete state of transformation and is of a
black muddy form, it is submitted to the action of any suitable apparatus capable
of extracting the greater part of the liquid it contains.
Then the humid mass is treated with lime in proportion sufficient to completely
neutralize the humic acid and the sulphuric acid and so that the material contains
an excess of lime which is transformed into carbonate of lime under the action of
atmospheric air.
The humate of lime thus obtained is then, according to our invention added to
sulphate of potash destined to react, in the earth, upon the carbonate of lime to
produce sulphate of lime and carbonate of potash, energetically dissolving humic
acid which is thus rendered soluble assimilable.
As above stated we may employ any other base, such as potash or ammonia, in
the place of lime.
In any case, no matter what nature of base is employed, the completely
neutralized mass is placed to dry for a sufficient time, then stored
in sacks.
or placed
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, we declare that what
we claim is ;-
1. As a new industrial product, a manure constituted by the combination of
humate of lime (or other base) and of carbonate of lime and sulphate of potash,
with or without the addition of chemical manures, substantially as hereinbefore
described.
2. The process of manufacture of our manure with a base of humate of lime or
other base, consisting in the whole of the operations herein before described.
Dated this 13th day of August. 1895.
ALLISON BROS.,
Agents for the Applicants.