Thoraiya DyerCan Stainless Steel in Your Toilet Sink Make It So Your Sh!t Don’t Stink?
October 27th 2008 20:47
People spend lots of money trying to make their toilets odourless.
The fact is, bodily waste smells bad, and if you’ve spent ten minutes in a very small room squeezing out the contents of your bowel, you just have to accept that it’s not going to smell like roses.
Air fresheners are a desperate assault on this reality, and they can mask many bad smells, but the chemicals in them are bad for allergies, bad for asthma and bad for the environment.
So it seemed too good to be true when I received junk mail advertising “an Odourless Toilet, Chemical Free, Lasts a Lifetime!”
Stainless steel, the pamphlet asserted, has a marvellous effect when mixed with water, neutralising unpleasant, strong smells.
Oh, so that’s why prison toilets are made of stainless steel!
Here is a similar product to the one that was advertised in my junk mail, and a description:
“Miracle’ Stainless Discs permanently banish toilet odour. Extraordinary though it seems, these discs really do work! Made from a special alloy of high-grade stainless steel, they neutralise odours as soon as they come into contact with air and water by catalyticaction, keeping the air fresh and clean.
They contain no chemicals or fragrances to cover odours, but literally remove smells – and best of all, they last a lifetime. Hang one in the cutlery basket of your dishwasher or on the inside of the toilet bowl so that it makes contact with water every time you flush. Discmeasures 2 1⁄2” diameter.”
(from here: Really Long Link )
Interesting. I’m fascinated by the toilet claim, more than the dishwasher one. What odour do we all want to neutralise? The odour of poo.
So what actually makes it stink?
Before writing this article, I would have said, “methane” in a heartbeat, but I’ve been reminded of something I should have already known: Methane (along with fart components nitrogen, oxygen and carbon dioxide) is odourless.
Seems like the real stinky ones are these ( Really Long Link ):
"Bacteria produce smelly, sulfur- or nitrogen-rich organic compounds such as indole, skatole, and mercaptans, and the inorganic gas hydrogen sulfide.”
The latter seems to be the main offender. So what we need, to make a toilet odourless, is to eliminate hydrogen sulfide.
“Miracle” claims that its disc works by “catalytic action.”
What is a catalyst, again?
“n. 1. Chemistry. A substance, usually used in small amounts relative to the reactants, that modifies and increases the rate of a reaction without being consumed in the process.”
Can stainless steel be a catalyst for the oxidation of hydrogen sulfide – that is, this reaction?
Let’s find out, starting with the ingredients of stainless steel:
“When an alloy of steel contains more than approximately 10 ½% Chromium it can be classified as a stainless steel. This is because Chromium has a high affinity for Oxygen and forms a stable Oxide film on the surface of the steel. This film is resistant to further chemical or physical change,” says Contractors Unlimited ( Really Long Link ).
According to Applied Catalysis, ( Really Long Link ) chromium oxide CAN act as a catalyst for converting hydrogen sulfide to sulfur and water:
“CrOx and CrOx supported on SiO2 have been found to be active for the selective oxidation of hydrogen sulfide to elemental sulfur. The catalysts show maximum sulfur yield at a stoichiometric ratio of O2/H2S, 0.5.”
Does that mean the stainless steel disc actually works?
Well, other sites suggest that you need the chromium oxide in combination ( Really Long Link ) with other substances:
“A catalyst for effective oxidation of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) includes 0.010-2 wt. % of a noble metal such as platinum in combination with 0.5-15 wt. % of a transition metal oxide such as chromium oxide.”
And still others ( Really Long Link ) suggest that higher than room temperatures are required for catalytic conversion to take place:
“… the oxidation reaction occurs at lower temperatures than thermal incineration, with the help of a catalyst, allowing oxidation reactions to occur rapidly in the temperature range from 350 to 400 ° C.”
The reaction is used ( Really Long Link ) to remove foul-smelling hydrogen sulfide from well water, but this occurs in a pressurised system where ten times the amount of oxygen that normally dissolves in water is forced to dissolve. So maybe normal pressures just don’t cut it?
Well, I couldn’t find a definite answer after many hours of hunting. I learned about iron compound catalysts and carbon compound catalysts and biofilters that all remove hydrogen sulfide. I learned about lots of different chemical additives that oxidise hydrogen sulfide.
There appears to be no specific research on stainless steel discs in toilets.
And then I started to wonder about that hydrogen sulfide gas. Where is it located after you’ve pooped, for starters?
Most of it has surely been farted out and is floating around the bathroom. Some of it probably exists as gas bubbles in the faeces. It’s not contained in any way.
It’s not even in contact with the stainless steel disc, so how can it possibly work?
Well, some of the gas is bound to be dissolved in the water in the toilet bowl. Says Wiki ( Really Long Link ), there could be up to 0.25g hydrogen sulfide per 100mL.
Can we, at the very least, oxidise the gas that’s in the toilet water? Not really. Not without dunking the steel disc thing in the bowl. I mean, the water that swirls around the toilet rim is fresh water.
What if we dropped the steel disc into the toilet bowl?
I phoned a friendly neighbourhood scientist with a chemistry major. Here was his take on the situation:
“Even if there was sufficient surface area on the disc for the reaction to take place – which I doubt – and even if there was sufficient oxygen dissolved in the water – which I also doubt – you have to think about the water, which is chlorinated and highly ionised – and what other reactions would most likely take priority.”
What, no miracle? No odour-free toilet forever?
But SURELY you couldn’t SELL a product that DIDN’T WORK??
Somebody, please convince me I’ve made a horrible mistake. Show me how The Magical Vortex of Power funnels all that floaty fart gas back down into the toilet. Tell me that I wouldn’t be better off just installing an exhaust fan.
Otherwise, how can I ever trust my junk mail again?
The fact is, bodily waste smells bad, and if you’ve spent ten minutes in a very small room squeezing out the contents of your bowel, you just have to accept that it’s not going to smell like roses.
Air fresheners are a desperate assault on this reality, and they can mask many bad smells, but the chemicals in them are bad for allergies, bad for asthma and bad for the environment.
So it seemed too good to be true when I received junk mail advertising “an Odourless Toilet, Chemical Free, Lasts a Lifetime!”
Stainless steel, the pamphlet asserted, has a marvellous effect when mixed with water, neutralising unpleasant, strong smells.
Oh, so that’s why prison toilets are made of stainless steel!
Here is a similar product to the one that was advertised in my junk mail, and a description:
“Miracle’ Stainless Discs permanently banish toilet odour. Extraordinary though it seems, these discs really do work! Made from a special alloy of high-grade stainless steel, they neutralise odours as soon as they come into contact with air and water by catalyticaction, keeping the air fresh and clean.
They contain no chemicals or fragrances to cover odours, but literally remove smells – and best of all, they last a lifetime. Hang one in the cutlery basket of your dishwasher or on the inside of the toilet bowl so that it makes contact with water every time you flush. Discmeasures 2 1⁄2” diameter.”
(from here: Really Long Link )
Interesting. I’m fascinated by the toilet claim, more than the dishwasher one. What odour do we all want to neutralise? The odour of poo.
So what actually makes it stink?
Before writing this article, I would have said, “methane” in a heartbeat, but I’ve been reminded of something I should have already known: Methane (along with fart components nitrogen, oxygen and carbon dioxide) is odourless.
Seems like the real stinky ones are these ( Really Long Link ):
"Bacteria produce smelly, sulfur- or nitrogen-rich organic compounds such as indole, skatole, and mercaptans, and the inorganic gas hydrogen sulfide.”
The latter seems to be the main offender. So what we need, to make a toilet odourless, is to eliminate hydrogen sulfide.
“Miracle” claims that its disc works by “catalytic action.”
What is a catalyst, again?
“n. 1. Chemistry. A substance, usually used in small amounts relative to the reactants, that modifies and increases the rate of a reaction without being consumed in the process.”
Can stainless steel be a catalyst for the oxidation of hydrogen sulfide – that is, this reaction?
Let’s find out, starting with the ingredients of stainless steel:
“When an alloy of steel contains more than approximately 10 ½% Chromium it can be classified as a stainless steel. This is because Chromium has a high affinity for Oxygen and forms a stable Oxide film on the surface of the steel. This film is resistant to further chemical or physical change,” says Contractors Unlimited ( Really Long Link ).
According to Applied Catalysis, ( Really Long Link ) chromium oxide CAN act as a catalyst for converting hydrogen sulfide to sulfur and water:
“CrOx and CrOx supported on SiO2 have been found to be active for the selective oxidation of hydrogen sulfide to elemental sulfur. The catalysts show maximum sulfur yield at a stoichiometric ratio of O2/H2S, 0.5.”
Does that mean the stainless steel disc actually works?
Well, other sites suggest that you need the chromium oxide in combination ( Really Long Link ) with other substances:
“A catalyst for effective oxidation of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) includes 0.010-2 wt. % of a noble metal such as platinum in combination with 0.5-15 wt. % of a transition metal oxide such as chromium oxide.”
And still others ( Really Long Link ) suggest that higher than room temperatures are required for catalytic conversion to take place:
“… the oxidation reaction occurs at lower temperatures than thermal incineration, with the help of a catalyst, allowing oxidation reactions to occur rapidly in the temperature range from 350 to 400 ° C.”
The reaction is used ( Really Long Link ) to remove foul-smelling hydrogen sulfide from well water, but this occurs in a pressurised system where ten times the amount of oxygen that normally dissolves in water is forced to dissolve. So maybe normal pressures just don’t cut it?
Well, I couldn’t find a definite answer after many hours of hunting. I learned about iron compound catalysts and carbon compound catalysts and biofilters that all remove hydrogen sulfide. I learned about lots of different chemical additives that oxidise hydrogen sulfide.
There appears to be no specific research on stainless steel discs in toilets.
And then I started to wonder about that hydrogen sulfide gas. Where is it located after you’ve pooped, for starters?
Most of it has surely been farted out and is floating around the bathroom. Some of it probably exists as gas bubbles in the faeces. It’s not contained in any way.
It’s not even in contact with the stainless steel disc, so how can it possibly work?
Well, some of the gas is bound to be dissolved in the water in the toilet bowl. Says Wiki ( Really Long Link ), there could be up to 0.25g hydrogen sulfide per 100mL.
Can we, at the very least, oxidise the gas that’s in the toilet water? Not really. Not without dunking the steel disc thing in the bowl. I mean, the water that swirls around the toilet rim is fresh water.
What if we dropped the steel disc into the toilet bowl?
I phoned a friendly neighbourhood scientist with a chemistry major. Here was his take on the situation:
“Even if there was sufficient surface area on the disc for the reaction to take place – which I doubt – and even if there was sufficient oxygen dissolved in the water – which I also doubt – you have to think about the water, which is chlorinated and highly ionised – and what other reactions would most likely take priority.”
What, no miracle? No odour-free toilet forever?
But SURELY you couldn’t SELL a product that DIDN’T WORK??
Somebody, please convince me I’ve made a horrible mistake. Show me how The Magical Vortex of Power funnels all that floaty fart gas back down into the toilet. Tell me that I wouldn’t be better off just installing an exhaust fan.
Otherwise, how can I ever trust my junk mail again?
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