NARRATOR: It's
explosive and corrosive. That's some strong [bleep]. NARRATOR: Yet it's the
most widely used chemical in the world. If controlled, it
will polish metal. Unleashed, it will
dissolve it in seconds. Once it's on your
skin, you're burnt. NARRATOR: From the depths of the
Earth's core to the depths of [audio out],, this
chemical is [audio out].. Now, "Acid" on "Modern Marvels". [music playing] NARRATOR: Each year the
United States manufactures approximately 100
million tons of acid. That's equal to a daily
production of two pounds per person for an entire year. What's all that acid used for? Just about everything. Many of the things that
you touch and see every day have used acid in
their manufacture. Plastics, films,
textiles, fertilizers. It's hard to imagine a thing
that hadn't had an acid used in its production at some point. NARRATOR: Yet despite all the
products acid helps to create, this essential
chemical of industry is equally prized
because it can destroy. [explosion] One of the most widespread and
dangerous acids is nitric acid. The US produces eight
million tons a year, and it's the primary catalyst
in the three million tons of explosives detonated
annually in North America, mainly in the form of ammonium
nitrate fuel oil, or ANFO. Nitric acid in its
concentrated form is one of the most powerful
oxidizing acids that there is. NARRATOR: Nitric
acid is the engine that powers the explosion. When nitric acid reacts with
a substance like glycerin, its nitrogen oxide atoms attach
to the newly formed material, nitroglycerin. During detonation,
the nitrate molecules steal electrons, causing a rapid
decomposition that generates gas and heat. [explosion] ANFO is the leading explosive
used in civil construction. [explosion] For military
explosives, it's RDX. [explosion] RDX detonates with more than
twice the explosive velocity of ANFO. It's the key
ingredient in over five dozen explosive formulations
used by the US armed forces. The Holston Army Ammunition
Plant in Kingsport, Tennessee is the largest supplier of
high performance explosives for the military. Keeping pace with demand
requires vast amounts of nitric acid. Armored and protective
clothing, workers prepare to offload 180,000
pounds of nitric acid, which will be used to synthesize RDX. The nitric acid
that we're offloading is what we consider
concentrated nitric acid. It's 98% nitric acid with
a small amount of water. NARRATOR: Mechanic
Jackie Emmert has worked around this hazardous
chemical for over two decades. You better not take it for
granted because if you do, you'll pay for it. You don't get a second chance. Once it gets on your
skin, you're burnt. It eats down into your skin. Till they get something
on it to stop it, it'll probably just
burn on to the bone. NARRATOR: Once the nitric
acid is safely stored away, it will serve as a key
component in manufacturing RDX. Inside an eight-foot-tall
nitration tank, nitric acid is
mixed with hexamine and several
additional chemicals. The mix is heated to 150
degrees Fahrenheit and agitated at 140 RPMs. In 40 minutes, a chemical
cocktail crystallizes into RDX. This volatile ingredient,
born from acid, will now serve as the engine
for 70 different types of explosives. Mixing RDX with molten TNT
produces Composition B4, an explosive used to
detonate minefields. We have RDX and molten TNT
that go into a mix kettle, just like you would
mix a cake batter, and then it's dropped
to a pellet pot and onto a stainless steel belt. NARRATOR: The explosive
cocktail exits the pellet pot at 226 degrees
Fahrenheit and travels through cold water, which
solidifies the material. It then falls into
a collection bin, looking more like peanut
brittle, minus the peanuts, than a deadly explosive. Handling it from here is
not for the faint of heart. It can be impact-sensitive,
but that would mean taking a hammer and putting it on
a rock and hitting it with a hammer. That would be dangerous. But the way we handle it,
it is very stable product. NARRATOR: In addition
to Composition B4, Holston also produces C4,
a general purpose explosive strong enough to blast
through a steel door. What we're going to
be demonstrating today is about 70 grams
of our product. NARRATOR: The C4 is packed
inside a 16-ounce cup and placed on top of a
1/4-inch-thick steel plate. MAN: Fire and hope. And this is the demonstration
with the 1/4-inch boilerplate steel after 70
grams of material. NARRATOR: A closer look reveals
that the force of the explosion imprinted the number 16 from
the cup onto the steel plate. [explosion] Despite the fact that nitric
acid is a central ingredient in nearly every explosive
cocktail, most of it goes toward the production of
ammonium nitrate fertilizer. The US makes two and 1/2
million tons every year. But even in fertilizer, nitric
acid's explosive potential never stays dormant. Ammonium nitrate is
a popular fertilizer, but it can also be used as
an oxidizer for explosives. In that case, it has to
be mixed with a fuel, in this case, powdered zinc. Just a little bit of
water will get it started. NARRATOR: A simple drop of water
starts a chemical reaction that ignites the mixture. [explosion] In 1947, nitric
acid's volatility triggered disaster disaster. It happened in
Texas City, Texas. The port city was
nearly leveled when a freighter packed with ammonium
nitrate fertilizer exploded. KEVIN DUNN: In
those days, it was unknown what a violent explosive
ammonium nitrate could be. And so in the same
cargo ship, they had shipments of small arm
ammunition and other flammable materials. The small arms
ammunition went off in a fire, which then
detonated ammonium nitrate to catastrophic results. NARRATOR: 581 people were killed
and another 5,000 were injured. The Texas City disaster
is considered the worst industrial accident in the
history of the United States. Although nitric acid
is a powerful chemical, there's another acid that's
even stronger, sulfuric acid. Roughly 40 million tons
is produced a year, making it the leading chemical
manufactured in the United States. Sulfuric acid is used
in such a wide variety of industrial applications that
often a country's productivity can be measured in terms of the
tons of sulfuric acid produced each year. NARRATOR: Sulfuric acid is
classified as a strong acid because it contains a high
concentration of hydrogen ions. The pH scale measures
the strength of an acid. Water, which is a neutral
liquid, has a pH of 7. A pH with a number
greater than 7 is a base, while a pH with a
number less than 7 is an acid. Each number less than neutral
contains 10 times the hydrogen ions of the next greater number. Therefore, concentrated sulfuric
acid, which has a pH of 1, is 100,000 times more
acidic than saliva, which has a pH of 6. As with all strong
acids, when sulfuric acid is added to water or
a base, its hydrogen ions break off, generating heat. The heat from the
dissociation is being absorbed by a relatively small
amount of water, and the solution is getting
so hot that it actually melts the plastic cup
as well as the dropper. And this is why you don't
want to add water to acid. NARRATOR: Besides
being a strong acid, sulfuric acid is also highly
corrosive to most metals, including aluminum. I've got aluminum foil
here and sulfuric acid. The fog that's coming
off here is actually steam that's being generated
as the reaction proceeds. None of the aluminum
foil remains. NARRATOR: Sulfuric acid is
also a powerful dehydrator, capable of drawing
the moisture out of substances such as sugar. What we're seeing here, after
the sugar has lost its water, all that's left is
carbon, and it rises out of the beaker as a solid ash. NARRATOR: If a single
drop of sulfuric acid gets on your skin, it will treat
you just like it does sugar, by absorbing the
skin's moisture, which in turn generates heat. Not so sweet. In Mulberry, Florida, the Mosaic
Company produces sulfuric acid on a massive scale. If a drop is dangerous,
well, you do the math. JOE SCHNEIDER: We produce 35,000
tons a day of sulfuric acid. If we were to put
that in perspective, an average automobile
weighs about two tons. That would be like 17,000
automobiles parked in a parking lot every day. But sulfuric acid is used
in the petroleum industry, leaching industry, pulp
and paper industries. It is used to clean the
large vats in beer production so that each batch of beer
tastes the same as it did previously. NARRATOR: Regardless of
sulfuric acid's end use, it begins with, well,
sulfur, of course. At Mosaic, it
arrives by rail car. JOE SCHNEIDER: Sulfur is a solid
state at ambient temperatures. We have to heat it up to
approximate 270 degrees Fahrenheit. NARRATOR: Transforming molten
sulfur into sulfuric acid starts by spraying it through
a sulfur gun that expels it into a furnace. At 2,055 degrees Fahrenheit,
the sulfur combusts with oxygen to form sulfur dioxide gas. From there, the sulfur dioxide
travels to a converter. Combined with oxygen, it
passes through a catalyst that gradually converts
it into sulfur trioxide. Sulfur trioxide then enters an
absorption tower, where it's combined with water in a
sulfuric acid solution, creating additional
sulfuric acid. Since the reaction of water and
sulfuric acid produces heat, the tower is constantly
monitored and controlled. Mosaic circulates 40,000
gallons of cold water per minute to keep the tower operating at a
safe and efficient temperature. We have a cooling
system here behind me that's referred to
as a cooling tower, and it allows water to evaporate
and cool the water, which is then recirculated
back to the plant and used to cool the acid. NARRATOR: After the
sulfuric acid is produced, operators wearing acid-resistant
suits discharge it into trucks. The acid is then distributed
to various satellite plants to make fertilizer. Although a powerful corrosive,
at 98.5% percent concentration, sulfuric acid is powerless
against the stainless steel enclosure of the truck. Whether you're transporting it
in an acid-resistant metal cage or handling it in a
protective acid suit, keeping this corrosive
chemical off your body is always a chief concern. But what exactly will
acid do to skin and bones? The answer will give you
some food for thought. While an acid's ability
to dissolve metal is a simple rule of science,
in Hollywood, flesh-eating acid is a product of science fiction. So how long does it take
for acid to dissolve a body? Everyone wonders what
it would be like to fall into a vat of acid. What I have here is
37% hydrochloric acid, which is as concentrated
as hydrochloric acid gets. As a stand-in for the body,
I've got a hot dog and a chicken bone. After six hours, we're
starting to see some action. The bone is starting
to get rather floppy, and the hot dog has
fallen to pieces. After nine hours, the hot
dog is nowhere to be found, and the bone is in
pretty sad shape. So after nine hours
in hydrochloric acid, your body is going to be
completely disintegrated. Fortunately for you, the fumes
would have killed you long before that. [scream] NARRATOR: Hydrochloric acid,
albeit a dilute concentration, is the same acid the stomach
makes to dissolve food. It's also the acid that's
a key step in making the ubiquitous substance
gelatin, a tasteless protein that puts the gel in jello. The Eastman Gelatin
Corporation, located in Peabody, Massachusetts, has
been making gelatin for nearly a century. Getting to the bare
bones of the process starts with just that, bones. DAVID ROY: Each of the rail
cars that comes into the plant contains about 200,000
pounds of bone. The bone is being
unloaded from a rail car. It goes through a sifter,
which has some screens of different sizes, and we
move the very fine material we call bone meal. The larger pieces of bone
go into a storage bin. NARRATOR: Each bin holds
roughly 500,000 pounds of bone, leftovers from
roughly 41,000 head of cattle. After the bone is stored,
it's ready for a lift. An electric crane
glides over the bin, scooping up 1500 pounds of
bone and dumping it into a vat. When the vat is filled with
33000 pounds of bone chips, it's time to bring on the acid. DAVID ROY: We use hydrochloric
acid because it reacts very effectively with the bone. The hydrochloric acid
is removing the minerals from the bone. The minerals are
essentially the concrete in the reinforced concrete. And we're reacting with
that, removing the minerals, leaving behind the rebar. The rebar is the protein
which we're going to make the gelatin out of. NARRATOR: It's a variable
process that requires some old school methods. A stick test helps
determine whether the bone is ready for the next step. DAVID ROY: The bone that
has been mineralized is not as dense. The stick can push its
way down through it. So that's our way of
telling how much of the bone has been demineralized. NARRATOR: After the acid
demineralizes the bone, the bone is transferred
to a lime bath. Here, lime finishes the job
of breaking down the collagen proteins that have been exposed
by the hydrochloric acid. The bone is then washed and
pumped into an extraction vat for gelatin removal. DAVID ROY: What
I'm holding my hand here is essentially
what I call the rebar. So we've removed the minerals
to get the concrete out of the way, and what we're
left with is just the protein. NARRATOR: The gelatin is
extracted in a hot water solution and pumped
through an extruder, falling onto a conveyor looking
like wet spaghetti noodles. JAMES MCDERMOTT: What
I'm holding in my hand here is 30% gelatin
and 70% water. As soon as you
put in your mouth, it would melt and
have no flavor at all. NARRATOR: The gelatin is then
cooked until it's bone dry, cut into granules,
boxed, and shipped. From this point
on, it can be used in a variety of
different products, including film emulsions,
pharmaceuticals, golf balls, and food. "Bone" appetit. While gelatin's lack of
flavor makes it a valued food additive, acid's sour flavor
makes it a prized food ingredient. Before me I have a
range of acidic materials that we consume every day. Oranges, which contain citric,
will have a pH of about 3.8. Ginger ale, which also
contains citric acid, has a pH of about 3. A cola contains phosphoric acid,
and it's going to be about 2.6. And finally, we have red wine
vinegar, which is the most acidic of these materials. And as with all acids, vinegar
has a wonderful sour taste. NARRATOR: Vinegar is hardly
deemed a refreshing beverage, but Americans consume more than
six million tons of it a year. One of the oldest and largest
commercial manufacturers of vinegar is Heinz. Here at the Heinz plant
in Holland, Michigan, making vinegar starts with
a whole lot of spirits. We get grain sourced alcohol
made only from grain corn shipped to us in
30,000-gallon rail cars. And it comes in at 190
proof, which is 95% alcohol. NARRATOR: Considering that
alcohol is flammable at proof, you might want to choose another
spot for a cigarette break. The alcohol is offloaded into
a storage tank and then pumped into a series of
18,000-gallon mash tanks, where it's added to
water, producing a 13.5% concentration. The next step is adding
a mix of nutrients to the mash that
will help promote the growth of a little friend
that plays a big part in making vinegar, acetobacter. MAN: Acetobacter
is a microorganism, and the metabolism and
growth of that organism is what facilitates the
oxidation of alcohol to acetic acid. We must provide the nutrients
so the bacteria have sufficient nutrition to grow. NARRATOR: With the
nutrients mixed, the mash solution is pumped
to an acetator, where the final ingredient needed
to make vinegar is added, oxygen. Inside the
temperature-controlled acetator, a propeller
spinning at 3,600 RPMs draws in oxygen through
a charcoal filter and disperses it
throughout the solution. A healthy supply of O2
combined with the nutrients propagates the growth
of a acetobacter. After 18 to 22 hours,
the acetobacter converts the 13.5% alcohol
into 13.5% acetic acid. After the tank is discharged,
it's diluted further to 5% acetic acid. A few flavoring
ingredients are added, and the acidic solution is
bottled as household vinegar. Because vinegar holds
an infinite shelf life, it's been a prized food
preservative for centuries. But vinegar is only
one of a multitude of vinegar-based
products made at Heinz. Serving as an
ingredient, vinegar turns the humble
cucumber into a pickle and adds a sour flavor to
marinades, salad dressings, and ketchup. While Heinz satisfies our
appetite for acidic food, this green goo acidic brew
has an appetite for metal. And it's about to be unleashed. It envelops marvels
of engineering. Yet before it embodies
its signature sheen, it can appear dull and porous. But soak it in a corrosive
cocktail of strong acid, hit it with a jolt
of electricity, and you've got a recipe that
will take the stain right out of steel. The process is called
electropolishing. But while stainless steel
is aesthetically pleasing, it's also corrosion resistant. Making it that way is a
process called passivation. DUSTIN COLINA: Passivation
is the definition of removing impurities and
making the stainless steel clean, like sterile. However, sterile is
defined and only temporary, like a Band-Aid. It's sterile until you
unwrap the package. Passivation is defined
as permanently sterile. NARRATOR: Although
just 21 years old, Dustin Colina owns one of
the largest electropolishing companies in the southeast
United States, Allbright Electropolishing. By passivating stainless
steel, Allbright provides an essential
tool for any industry that demands sterilization,
even the tattoo industry. DUSTIN COLINA: Right
here we have tattoo tips. It looks dull right now
because it's been machined. Electropolishing will
make it shiny and clean. NARRATOR: Electropolishing
tips for tattoo guns starts with carefully placing
them on a rack of razor sharp spikes. WILLIAM FOX: We call this a
ninja tree, and as you can see, we just kind of pinch these
together and put smaller parts on here. These are obviously
pretty sharp. You make any sudden movements
and you're not aware that it's there, it can't
hurt you pretty bad. NARRATOR: Although not as
dangerous as working around a 900-gallon tank of
concentrated acid, racking tattoo tips
is a close second. They'll get going pretty fast,
and next thing you know, you turn around, you got your
elbow stuck to one of these. NARRATOR: After the tattoo tips
are placed on the ninja tree, operators begin the up and down
procession of electropolishing. The first step is what we
call our diox cleaner tank. Diox cleaner is used
to remove the organics from the part, oils,
grease, well discoloration. Once it's out of
that diox cleaner, it goes into our
electropolishing baths. NARRATOR: Stored inside a
plastic-lined 900-gallon tank is a mixture of sulfuric
and phosphoric acid. If you fell into it, it
would burn you severely. But it's the key ingredient
behind Allbright's electropolishing prowess. The viscosity is
almost the same as milk, but it's actually green. So our rule is if it's
green, don't touch it. Now to demonstrate the
concentration of this acid, what I'm going to do
now is pour in a base and show you how
violently it reacts. That's some strong [bleep]. NARRATOR: During
electropolishing, two copper bars, one holding
stainless steel parts and the other holding a
series of copper plates, are immersed at opposite
ends of the acid tank. A 20 volt DC current passes
through the acid, which acts as an electrolyte
to distribute electricity through the tank. As electricity flows
through the bars, an anionic charge
microscopically etches the metal, exposing the
layer of chromium in the alloy. The acid reacts
with the chromium to form a protective
layer of chromium oxide that passivates the
stainless steel. DUSTIN COLINA: Here's an
example of the tattoo tips that we had before we ran
in the electropolishing. And after the process, you can
see the dramatic difference in the shine, the
luster of the parts. Not only does it
look great, but it has the very important
properties of passivation keeping it clean. NARRATOR: Allbright houses
one of the largest acid tanks in America. And while Allbright's
acid is green, so is its method
of recycling it. What we add is a
chemical called PRO-pHx. Now it may smell like
dead fish, but it actually does serve a great purpose. What it does is
when we introduce it into our acids of sulfuric
and phosphoric acids, it actually separates
all the metal salts from electropolishing. And what it does is it
solidifies those metal salts so that it can be sucked
into our filters, then removed, thus
cleaning our acid vats. NARRATOR: While
Allbright has found a way to recycle its acid, Heraeus
Metal Processing in Santa Fe Springs, California uses
acid to recycle gold, silver, and platinum from spent
parts that would otherwise be cast away. JP ROSSO: What we
do here at Heraeus is hydrometallurgy
at its finest. Using acids, this
plant facility here will produce over one
million Troy ounces per year of precious metals from
various recycling and recovery operations. Since the metal retains
its purity and value, it can be reused to manufacture
more of the same parts from which it was recycled. Most of the precious metal
Heraeus recovers is platinum. JP ROSSO: The general
public would not be aware of how many
aspects of their modern life are impacted by
platinum in production. Literally 100% of all gasoline
and all jet fuel in the world is manufactured using a
platinum and, in many cases, a palladium catalyst. NARRATOR: But
recovering those trace amounts of platinum
from spent catalysts equates to searching for a
very small needle in a very large haystack. Normal average
reforming catalyst will contain 0.3 weight percent
of platinum content per pound of actual catalyst. So in this drum, for example,
we have approximately 400 pounds of catalyst at a 3/10 of a
percent platinum content. Using today's
precious metal value, this drum holds approximately
$24,000 worth of platinum. NARRATOR: Isolating the
platinum from the 99.7% percent of unwanted material starts
with removing oversized debris. After the catalyst
is screened, it's fed into a tank
of sulfuric acid. CHRIS JOHNSON: The sulfuric
acid will completely dissolve the aluminum
substrate, but completely leaves the platinum untouched. The platinum is in a solid
at the bottom of the tank. NARRATOR: The solid is then sent
to the general refinery area at Heraeus, where the last
remaining impurities must be removed. CHRIS JOHNSON: It is sort
of like solving a mystery. You have to eliminate all
the suspects, the chrome and the nickel and
the other things, to make sure that you
have a pure product. NARRATOR: The chemical employed
to unravel the mystery is a mixture of strong acids which
forms the only acid cocktail capable of dissolving
precious metals, aqua regia. Medieval alchemists
believed aqua regia presaged an even more wondrous
substance, one that would turn inexpensive metals
into gold, the philosopher's stone. The elusive substance is still
waiting to be discovered. Well, if you mix hydrochloric
acid and nitric acid in the right ratio, you
will generate aqua regia. And I can show
this, for example, with a little bit of copper,
which is precious by itself as well, not as precious
as platinum, for example. But you can see this when I drop
this into hydrochloric acid, there's not a lot of
stuff happening here. But as soon as you
add the nitric acid, you will see a change. Our goal is, with aqua regia,
to bring everything in solution in order to apply our
separation techniques. NARRATOR: During separation,
the pure platinum metal at this stage looks
more like cheese sauce than a precious metal. Well, to me, this
is beautiful material. It's nice, brilliant yellow. What's in this bad right now
represents about $3 million worth of pure platinum. In the end, the platinum
emerges in the form of a sponge. This is platinum sponge. To the average layperson coming
across material like this, they would call for the janitor
and have it swept up and thrown away. To us, this is
platinum, and this is worth over $1,250 per
ounce in today's market. NARRATOR: Acid helps Heraeus
recycle over 62,000 pounds of precious metal a year. But perhaps more
importantly, acid helped stabilize the market
price of these vital yet finite materials. While acid's corrosive power
makes it a tool of industry, its vapors were once
used as a tool of war, and the same acid that wreaked
havoc in the trenches of World War I now helps fabricate
a myriad of products we can't live without. One of acid's most
distinctive traits is its ability to
dissolve metal. Just ask Ripley. But acids can have
a finicky palate when it comes to digesting it. KEVIN DUNN: Since 1983,
American pennies have actually been made out of zinc, which
you can see if you file the copper plating away. What I've got here are pennies
that are filed away on one side to expose the zinc, while on the
other side, they remain copper. NARRATOR: While nitric acid
dissolves the entire penny, the hydrochloric acid
only absorbs the zinc. But in the nitric
acid beaker, there is nothing left of the penny,
while in the hydrochloric acid, it appears that
the penny remains, but this is only the
thin copper shell from one side of the penny. The remnant of the
penny is paper thin. NARRATOR: Fotofab,
based in Chicago, harnesses the largely
indiscriminate appetite of ferric chloride acid to
etch a wide assortment of metal from cell phone motherboards
to radio frequency shields to ultra fine filters. Acid-etched parts typically
worked behind the scenes. Others are right in
front of your face, like your dashboard
instrument panel. Etching metal take
some pretty nasty acid, but it starts with making
the metal acid-resistant. JAMIE HOWTON: We take
the sheets of metal that we clean, laminate
them with photoresist, which is a light-sensitive,
acid-resistant polymer. We apply it at 35 pounds
per square inch of pressure between two rubber rollers at
about 220 degrees Fahrenheit, and it bonds very
nicely with the model. NARRATOR: Coated with a
blue translucent polymer, the metal sheet is ready
to have its picture taken. An operator lines up the
familiar image of a dashboard instrument panel against both
sides of the photoresist. UV light is then
exposed onto the film. The light transfers the resist
through the transparent areas of the film and onto
the metal sheet. The film has now been exposed. The next thing we have to do
within a very short period of time is develop the image. Now you can see the areas
that have been developed away are bare metal. The photoresist is
protecting the rest of the sheet from the acid. NARRATOR: And that bare
metal will serve as a snack for ferric chloride acid. The sheet is placed onto a
conveyor belt, which carries it into a hermetically sealed
acid etching machine. As the sheet enters the machine,
a pair of 220 horsepower motors pump acid from a
300-gallon reservoir through a series of nozzles
housed on a spray manifold. The acid exits the nozzles
at 60 pounds per square inch, gradually eating through the
unprotected areas on the sheet. After etching, the
photo resist is removed, and a sparkling new
instrument panel is ready for your dashboard. The chlorine and
ferric chloride acid gradually loses its potency. To extend its use,
Fotofab spikes it with hydrochloric acid. JAMIE HOWTON: Muriatic
acid by itself, in the form that we buy
it, is extremely hazardous. It will do a very good job
of dissolving your skin and do a lot of permanent
injury to people. Anyone doing the
transfer does have to wear a full respirator, full
face shield, and full gloves and apron just because
this stuff is so nasty. NARRATOR: During World War
I, soldiers learned firsthand about the dangers of inhaling
hydrochloric acid fumes. KEVIN DUNN: The
battlefield gases of World War I, mustard
gas and phosgene gas, turn into hydrochloric acid
in the mucous membranes and the linings of the lung. The lungs respond by
trying to dilute that acid to protect the tissues. But in doing so, the
lung fills up with fluid, and very shortly, the
soldier is unable to breathe. NARRATOR: In the
acid etching process, both hydrochloric
and ferric acid fumes are removed and cleaned
before being discharged into the atmosphere. Although it carries
inherent dangers, acid's unmatched precision
makes it a necessary evil in manufacturing components that
make up our fabricated world. While acid fumes can wreak
havoc on your eyes and lungs, these steaming acid pools
are a tourist attraction. Within these acidic
bubbling springs, scientists have discovered
mysterious life forms that could revolutionize
future technology. Steam rises. Pools of acid bubble and erupt. This desolate area may be one
of the most inhospitable places on the planet. But this rare vestige
of primordial Earth is a tourist attraction. We call it Yellowstone
National Park. Within these
brilliantly colored acid pools reside potential
workhorses of industry. Yellowstone's acid pools
lie above a magma chamber. When water percolates
through the ground, it mixes with volcanic rock
deposits, becoming acidic. The magma heats the water,
which rises back up, forming acidic pools,
streams, and geysers. Some of the acidic hot
springs here impart an allure that masks their danger. More people have
died in Yellowstone due to thermal pools
than from bear attacks. This particular pool
looks very inviting, looks very much like a spa. But in reality, it's high
temperature, it's acidic, and this is not
something that you're going to want to jump into. NARRATOR: While Yellowstone's
thermal pools will destroy the cells of most
living creatures, they're not completely
void of life. Residing in their
scorching acidic waters are colonies of microbes
called thermoacidophiles. Scientists brave the
dangerous waters to study these ancient life forms. The gloves are a
basic safety precaution because we don't know what
the pH in the temperature of the water could be, so
it could be potentially hazardous to your skin. And for temperature, we read
about 45 degrees Celsius and pH of about 2.7. NARRATOR: That's roughly 100
times too acidic for fish to survive. What you see here is
a mat of an alga that's a eukaryotic alga, and
it's called cyanidium. And it's uniquely adapted to the
acidic high temperature regions of this particular spring. No other photosynthetic organism
is able to compete and survive in those conditions. NARRATOR: Thermoacidophiles
like cyanidium survive in these
extreme conditions by generating
special enzymes that protect their
cells from decaying in the superheated acidic water. The discovery of
these unique enzymes has ensured that
thermoacidophiles won't be written off as simply
scientific curiosities. GEOFF HAZLEWOOD:
If a microorganism can live at a very high
temperature or a very low pH, then it's not a large
leap to believe that it's making enzymes that can also
survive under those conditions. And those same enzymes
may have application in industrial processes. NARRATOR: Yellowstone
is only one of several
thermoacidophile hot spots. So-called bioprospectors
search for specialized thermoacidophile enzymes in
some of the most remote places on Earth. Among the places we've
looked for new enzymes is in the microorganisms
that live at the bottom of the deep ocean. In that location, you have
hot sulfurous gases, hydrogen sulfide, belching through
fissures in the Earth's crust generating temperatures
up to 250 Fahrenheit. NARRATOR: Living in
near boiling acid, hyperthermophiles
produce an enzyme that's being synthesized to produce
clean burning ethanol fuel from corn. GEOFF HAZLEWOOD: It works
on the starch molecule to break it down into
smaller fragments, and the conditions under which
the starch liquefaction is carried out are
characteristically high temperature and low pH. NARRATOR: While thermoacidophile
enzymes may one day help pioneer a biological
industrial revolution, their existence also
raises questions about other extreme
environments where life may exist
both here on Earth and throughout the solar system. From the steaming
pools of Yellowstone to the industrial processes
that mold our world, acid is perhaps the
most ubiquitous chemical on the planet. By taming its dangers,
mankind harnesses its gifts. Not bad for a
substance that leaves a sour taste in your mouth. Ah, crap. MAN: You gotta drink it again. I know.
