Aspirin
Aspirin is the brand name for Salicylic acid. It's production on Mars would be part of a larger chemical production system, and it can be used as a model for the complexity of the chemical industry that would be required for a Mars Settlement.
Contents
In situ production
Aspirin can be synthesized from simple precursor molecules using the following synthesis path:
Main Salicylic acid production path
Methane (CH4) + Catalytic reforming -> mixture of aromatic hydrocarbons including Toluene and Benzene
Separation by distillation -> Toluene (C7H8)
Toluene + O2 in a cobalt catalyzed reaction -> benzoic acid (C7H6O2)
Benzoic acid + molten sodium benzoate(C6H5COONa) in a copper-catalyzed reaction -> Phenol (C6H5OH)
Phenol + sodium hydroxide(NaOH) -> sodium phenoxide (NaOC6H5)
Sodium phenoxide +CO2 at 100 atm and 115 °C in a method known as the Kolbe-Schmitt reaction -> sodium salicylate (C7H5NaO3)
Sodium salicylate + acidification with sulfuric acid ->
Salicylic acid
Sodium benzoate production
Benzoic acid(C7H6O2) + Sodium hydroxyde (NaOH) -> sodium benzoate (C6H5COONa)
Sodium hydroxide production
Sodium hydroxide is also known as caustic soda.
Sodium hydroxide (NaOH) is produced by the electrolysis of sodium chloride using the Chloralkali process.
It may be more practical to produce aspirin from the bark of the willow tree, that contains the amino acid Phenylalanine. however, this requires the mastery of enzyme catalyzed processes.
