Pottasium Nitrate from fertilster?

[Colo]

Hello,

i want to try to get pottasium nitrate using this fertiliser I bought. It has a concentration of 16% pottasium oxide and 14% nitrogen. I sadly dont have any chemicals so does anybody know how to?

[Darkonez]

Hi

do you have a link for the product your trying to use, it may be better for us to know it before offering advice. 

[T1st]

Not sure what fertilizer you have exactly,

Its much easier to just buy pure KNO3, Sometimes its sold as a fertilizer called NPK 13-0-45 which is essentially pure KNO3, it maybe has some tiny additives at most, if both options are not available you could buy 12-6-40 which contains at least 70% KNO3 or maybe 12-12-36 which contains about 60%, i don't remember the exact KNO3 content but i think its somewhat close, any fertilizer that is not pure KNO3 will for sure need purifying by recrystallization which is very simple, each recrystallization will give purer KNO3 but you'll lose a bunch of the product, if you have 12-6-40 and you did 2 recrystallizations you'll probably end up with only 50% of what you started with, maybe a little more if your process was very good.

 

Anyway i do not recommend you do any of this without experience, and also check if it is legal to have KNO3 as an individual in your country, this oxidizer is regulated in almost every country, every country has its own regulations so check them carefully.

[WalterWhite]

On 3/13/2025 at 12:43 AM, T1st said:

Not sure what fertilizer you have exactly,

Its much easier to just buy pure KNO3, Sometimes its sold as a fertilizer called NPK 13-0-45 which is essentially pure KNO3, it maybe has some tiny additives at most, if both options are not available you could buy 12-6-40 which contains at least 70% KNO3 or maybe 12-12-36 which contains about 60%, i don't remember the exact KNO3 content but i think its somewhat close, any fertilizer that is not pure KNO3 will for sure need purifying by recrystallization which is very simple, each recrystallization will give purer KNO3 but you'll lose a bunch of the product, if you have 12-6-40 and you did 2 recrystallizations you'll probably end up with only 50% of what you started with, maybe a little more if your process was very good.

 

Anyway i do not recommend you do any of this without experience, and also check if it is legal to have KNO3 as an individual in your country, this oxidizer is regulated in almost every country, every country has its own regulations so check them carefully.

Interesting. It would be very useful, btw. to have a list, with an overview about all available NPK-combos, what are the ingredients. Do you know if something like that exists? That would be a big help, to produce pure chemicals from fertilizers, for different purposes.

[bugmenot1]

Products vary by country and continent, and we are an international forum. The 13-0-46 water-soluble potassium nitrate fertilizer is a technical grade KNO3 with a purity of 99%. There's the back of the packaging that you need to look at, and technical data sheets. If someone has a problem with this basic thing, then this hobby is not for them. Most of us use this and it works perfectly for everything.

[Arthur]

Sometimes the nitrogen comes from nitrate, sometimes from urea. Somtimes calcium salts are used. BUT most plants and crops need their fertiliser as some variant ratio of NPK compounds.

[WalterWhite]

9 hours ago, bugmenot1 said:

Products vary by country and continent, and we are an international forum. The 13-0-46 water-soluble potassium nitrate fertilizer is a technical grade KNO3 with a purity of 99%. There's the back of the packaging that you need to look at, and technical data sheets. If someone has a problem with this basic thing, then this hobby is not for them. Most of us use this and it works perfectly for everything.

The 13-0-46 is illegal to buy, sell or even own it in EU, for private persons, since they changed the laws. Like almost for every common oxidizer for pyrotec.
Same for a lot of other chemicals, H2O2, Acids a.s.o. maximum allowed HNO3 concentration is just 3% now, for example and H2SO4 is 15% what is even lower, than lead battery acid, that is also not sold anymore for private persons and disappeared from any hardwarestore.
If you live in EU, and are hobby-chemist, you are kinda screwed today. That's why it would be very useful to have a list, an overview, about all available NPK-combos and what they have inside. I am quiete sure, such thing exists somewhere. It could be helpful to extract pure chemicals and / or synthesize some others from them. As far as I know, technical data sheets doesn't say anything about the ingredients of combinated fertilizers, not more than the NPK-Code says, as long they are not the most common standard fertilizers, everything knows already.

[WalterWhite]

6 hours ago, Arthur said:

Sometimes the nitrogen comes from nitrate, sometimes from urea. Somtimes calcium salts are used. BUT most plants and crops need their fertiliser as some variant ratio of NPK compounds.

Of course. The idea was, to collect some data, which fertilizer brand and product, uses what inside. You could also analyze it, but why, when somewhere the data must be present already? Also you wouldn't buy unuseful fertilizers anymore, if you could know before, what they have inside.

Edited March 14 by WalterWhite

[mx5kevin]

3 hours ago, WalterWhite said:

The 13-0-46 is illegal to buy, sell or even own it in EU, for private persons, since they changed the laws. Like almost for every common oxidizer for pyrotec.
Same for a lot of other chemicals, H2O2, Acids a.s.o. maximum allowed HNO3 concentration is just 3% now, for example and H2SO4 is 15% what is even lower, than lead battery acid, that is also not sold anymore for private persons and disappeared from any hardwarestore.
If you live in EU, and are hobby-chemist, you are kinda screwed today. That's why it would be very useful to have a list, an overview, about all available NPK-combos and what they have inside. I am quiete sure, such thing exists somewhere. It could be helpful to extract pure chemicals and / or synthesize some others from them. As far as I know, technical data sheets doesn't say anything about the ingredients of combinated fertilizers, not more than the NPK-Code says, as long they are not the most common standard fertilizers, everything knows already.

 

8 hours ago, Arthur said:

Sometimes the nitrogen comes from nitrate, sometimes from urea. Somtimes calcium salts are used. BUT most plants and crops need their fertiliser as some variant ratio of NPK compounds.

 

3 hours ago, WalterWhite said:

Of course. The idea was, to collect some data, which fertilizer brand and product, uses what inside. You could also analyze it, but why, when somewhere the data must be present already? Also you wouldn't buy unuseful fertilizers anymore, if you could know before, what they have inside.

You know this wrong. Nothing like this applies to potassium nitrate, only suspicious transactions and significant disappearances and thefts are to be reported within 24 hours must be reported see: ANNEX II: (they do not ask for any declaration or permission). ANNEX I: have a % w/w which you will get inside and below as individual user without license. If you know otherwise, please provide a link to the exact legislation.

REGULATION (EU) 2019/1148 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL

As private person you buy as much as you want 13-0-46 water soluble potassium nitrate fertilizer crystals. It is available in 1kg, 2kg and 25kg packages. This is purely technical grade but high purity potassium nitrate.

We do not work with contaminated raw materials, and there is no need to clean anything. If you don't buy it as fertilizer, but buy technical grade elsewhere, it's the same product, it won't get any cleaner or better.

I have never heard anyone say that someone should work with NPK granules. It can be produced at home in various ways in high purity. In this hobby we work with pure chemicals.

I live in Hungary, which is a member of the EU. There are several brands of 13-0-46 water-soluble potassium nitrate artificial fertilizer here, all them are pure potassium nitrate and just as good. You can get it here at any online shop or in person at an agricultural store. They don't ask for any statement. It is available as Potassium Nitrate and has nothing to do with NPK granular fertilizer.

Edited March 14 by mx5kevin

[T1st]

8 hours ago, WalterWhite said:

 

NPK fertilizers are not all the same as bugmenot1 and Arthur both said, but if you want to make your search a little easier you have to consider high potassium content fertilizers and the ones that have higher N and K but low or even no P, another thing you could look for is the yellow diamond on the label that says (5.1 OXIDIZER) or (OXIDIZING AGENT), any fertilizer that has this label will for sure have high amounts of KNO3 or other oxidizing compounds, last thing you could do is buy little bit of some fertilizers that you think have KNO3 in it and do the sugar burning test, mix some of the raw fertilizer that you want to test with powdered sugar and light it on fire, if it burns really well then that is a strong sign that KNO3 is present in large amounts.

 

Before you try any of this just try to search for pure KNO3 for a while, if you could find it then it will save you a lot of time and money.

[WalterWhite]

8 hours ago, T1st said:

NPK fertilizers are not all the same as bugmenot1 and Arthur both said, but if you want to make your search a little easier you have to consider high potassium content fertilizers and the ones that have higher N and K but low or even no P, another thing you could look for is the yellow diamond on the label that says (5.1 OXIDIZER) or (OXIDIZING AGENT), any fertilizer that has this label will for sure have high amounts of KNO3 or other oxidizing compounds, last thing you could do is buy little bit of some fertilizers that you think have KNO3 in it and do the sugar burning test, mix some of the raw fertilizer that you want to test with powdered sugar and light it on fire, if it burns really well then that is a strong sign that KNO3 is present in large amounts.

 

Before you try any of this just try to search for pure KNO3 for a while, if you could find it then it will save you a lot of time and money.

Nothing, what I didn't know already, that's why I asked for a list with NPK-Fertilzer ingredients, and btw, I have no problems to get my KNO3 or make my own, if I really want to. 
But pure KNO3 is forbidden to sell and own in the EU, as I already mentioned and you wouldn't find any Fertilzer anymore, with oxidizing agent labels on it. I remember the times, when I could order that easily online, but that's many years ago. And if one should order that today, he has good chances to get raided by the cops, view days or weeks later... 
NPK Fertilizers can also have some other interesting ingredients, it's not all about nitrates, at least not for me, as a chemist. 
KClO4 is much more potent oxidizer anyway in my eyes and can be produced more efficiently and easier than Nitrates. 

[mx5kevin]

There is no need to guess anything, and you should not use raw materials in pyrotechnics that are not pure. If it says potassium nitrate on the bag, then it is, if not, then it is not. But there's the back of the bag, if they list any ingredients other than potassium and nitrogen, it's not it, and you shouldn't buy it. K2O, NO3, N, It does not contain potassium oxide itself, but it is labeled as such on potassium fertilizers! There are no additives in potassium nitrate water-soluble fertilizer. Technical KNO3 are 99.5% pure. But if someone wants to make it, they can make it from other pure ingredients, where you can be sure to get a pure product. We have it as fertilizer, with technical purity but they are the same for us, and high purity 99,9% in aqarium shops, some online food shops, what are pharmacopoeial purity, which price is many times higher than technical purity and I live in the EU.

I haven't seen anyone make potassium nitrate from any type of NPK fertilizer at home, or used this for pyrotechnic. However, many people use several methods to make potassium nitrate at home, but I've never seen this from anyone. And this is not simple phosphorus-enriched potassium nitrate. Many of these have an acidic pH, and they have all kinds of additives in them. The water-soluble phosphorus residue is also very incompatible with pyrotechnic compositions, especially if it contains metal powder. Before someone buys something on the internet, they can check exactly what is in it. And as long as the user have the slightest doubt about what he exactly are buying, don't buy anything! If someone absolutely has to make it from another fertilizer, there are high-purity mono fertilizers. And there are proven methods for making clean ingredients from these.

[WalterWhite]

21 minutes ago, mx5kevin said:

There is no need to guess anything, and you should not use raw materials in pyrotechnics that are not pure. If it says potassium nitrate on the bag, then it is, if not, then it is not. But there's the back of the bag, if they list any ingredients other than potassium and nitrogen, it's not it, and you shouldn't buy it. K2O, NO3, N, It does not contain potassium oxide itself, but it is labeled as such on potassium fertilizers! There are no additives in potassium nitrate water-soluble fertilizer. Technical KNO3 are 99.5% pure. But if someone wants to make it, they can make it from other pure ingredients, where you can be sure to get a pure product. We have it as fertilizer, with technical purity but they are the same for us, and high purity 99,9% in aqarium shops, some online food shops, what are pharmacopoeial purity, which price is many times higher than technical purity and I live in the EU.

I haven't seen anyone make potassium nitrate from any type of NPK fertilizer at home, or used this for pyrotechnic. However, many people use several methods to make potassium nitrate at home, but I've never seen this from anyone. And this is not simple phosphorus-enriched potassium nitrate. Many of these have an acidic pH, and they have all kinds of additives in them. The water-soluble phosphorus residue is also very incompatible with pyrotechnic compositions, especially if it contains metal powder. Before someone buys something on the internet, they can check exactly what is in it. And as long as the user have the slightest doubt about what he exactly are buying, don't buy anything! If someone absolutely has to make it from another fertilizer, there are high-purity mono fertilizers. And there are proven methods for making clean ingredients from these.

All I asked for, was a list with the ingredients of different combos of NPK-Fertilizers, I have never said, what I want to do with it, or if I want to use it for pyrotec. But if I know what is inside the fertilzer, I will know what is possible or not, to purify a certain chemical out of it, what still would be much cheaper, if I would buy it, directly as pure chemical, maybe a chemical I can't even buy pure.
KNO3, like any other oxidizers are not personally my problem, if I should need them, but of course it would be cool, to have a cheap and easy source, without a risk, for them again.
I know, in hungary it is much more easy, everything concerning chemicals, also in other countries, like Slowenia, Poland and so on, but you have no Idea, how restrictive everything is in Germany! You literally wouldn't find KNO3 here anywhere anymore and if one should sell it to you, he is comitting a crime! That's the reality here.

Edited March 15 by WalterWhite

[mx5kevin]

15 minutes ago, WalterWhite said:

Nothing, what I didn't know already, that's why I asked for a list with NPK-Fertilzer ingredients, and btw, I have no problems to get my KNO3 or make my own, if I really want to. 
But pure KNO3 is forbidden to sell and own in the EU, as I already mentioned and you wouldn't find any Fertilzer anymore, with oxidizing agent labels on it. I remember the times, when I could order that easily online, but that's many years ago. And if one should order that today, he has good chances to get raided by the cops, view days or weeks later... 
NPK Fertilizers can also have some other interesting ingredients, it's not all about nitrates, at least not for me, as a chemist. 
KClO4 is much more potent oxidizer anyway in my eyes and can be produced more efficiently and easier than Nitrates. 

Explosive Precursors more clearly

In this site, the essence is described in a simple and transparent way.

 

Quote

Reportable Explosive Precursors

The below chemicals are available to the general public, but if an economic operator detects a suspicious transaction or disappearance (possibly also related to theft) involving them, they must report it to the Malta Police Force₁ within 24 hours:

• Hexamine
• Acetone
• Potassium Nitrate
• Sodium Nitrate
• Calcium Nitrate
• Calcium Ammonium Nitrate
• Magnesium Powders
• Magnesium Nitrate Hexahydrate
• Aluminium Powders

I live in Hungary, which is a full EU member and part of the Schengen area. Here you can get it in all forms with around 99.5% purity. Sellers are freely sent from abroad within the Schengen area for all users.

I don't know German law, but they are also part of the EU and the Schengen zone. There are no border controls or customs inspections. Pure potassium nitrate is sold in German webshops. But I see in German stores they ask for an ID card there and only sell it to adults. I found several German online webshops where you can buy it in all kinds of packaging as private person.

[WalterWhite]

13 minutes ago, mx5kevin said:

Explosive Precursors more clearly

In this site, the essence is described in a simple and transparent way.

 

I live in Hungary, which is a full EU member and part of the Schengen area. Here you can get it in all forms with around 99.5% purity. Sellers are freely sent from abroad within the Schengen area for all users.

I don't know German law, but they are also part of the EU and the Schengen zone. There are no border controls or customs inspections. Pure potassium nitrate is sold in German webshops. But I see in German stores they ask for an ID card there and only sell it to adults. I found several German online webshops where you can buy it in all kinds of packaging as private person.

Yes, some still may offer it online - but if you want to order it, as a private person, you have to send all your data and identity card, tell the purpose you want to buy it for - and as I already said, there are really good chances, you get visited at home by the cops, if you have no good reasons to buy the stuff, like being a farmer or something like that. I know a lot of people, who experienced exactly that. 
If you don't believe me, ask some other German, I know at least one other here, than me (@PyroGalaxy). 

[WalterWhite]

Here you can read the full Law-Situation:

https://www.bmk.gv.at/themen/klima_umwelt/chemiepolitik/recht/eu_vo/ausgangsstoffe-explosiv.html

If someone is ordering something from this list, the seller is forced to inform the authorities:

 

• Hexamin
• Aceton
• Kaliumnitrat
• Natriumnitrat
• Kalziumnitrat
• Kalziumammoniumnitrat
• Magnesium-Pulver
• Magnesiumnitrat
• Hexahydrat
• Aluminium-Pulver
  
  As you can see, it also includes Al und Mg-Powder already!

Edited March 15 by WalterWhite

[mx5kevin]

3 hours ago, WalterWhite said:

Here you can read the full Law-Situation:

https://www.bmk.gv.at/themen/klima_umwelt/chemiepolitik/recht/eu_vo/ausgangsstoffe-explosiv.html

If someone is ordering something from this list, the seller is forced to inform the authorities:

 

• Hexamin
• Aceton
• Kaliumnitrat
• Natriumnitrat
• Kalziumnitrat
• Kalziumammoniumnitrat
• Magnesium-Pulver
• Magnesiumnitrat
• Hexahydrat
• Aluminium-Pulver
  
  As you can see, it also includes Al und Mg-Powder already!

If the authorities were to crack down on amateurs en masse, large European pyroshops would lose significant customers. But these are all legal chemicals and raw materials. How many people do you think buy safety fuse, oxidizer, and metal powder at a pyro shop at the same time with one order? Many people because it's economical. Do you think they will report their customers to the authorities? But let's get back to the point that these are legal to buy and possess.

In Hungary, according to the laws, for this to be a crime, it would have to be proven that you intended to make explosives from it (and not pyrotechnic compositions which, if caught, is just a violation of the rules, which carries a fine), because they are legal in themselves.

If they find KClO3, KClO4 and restricted precursors In our country, they are also considered a violation and are subject to a fine. Of course, this also includes proving who owns it.

„If an economic operator detects a suspicious transaction or disappearance (possibly also related to theft) involving them, they must report it to the Malta Police Force1 within 24 hours”.

I don't know of any that would report every single customer, but there would be quite a few. Do you think they store all this data in a system for 5-10 years? In detail, who bought what? How many of these do you think a store sells on a daily basis? They didn't break down the door en masse on amateur pyrotechnicians. If this happened to someone, someones, tell us exactly what happened and how.

Do you think the authorities will break down your door just because you buy a 25kg bag of potassium nitrate? Or do you buy a total of 5kg of metal powder? Let's look at the facts, they don't write such things en masse. Where this happened, it took significantly more than that.

But who is really worried:

Aluminum and magnesium can be made at home, everything can be purchased personally without any ID, or personal information. When I started, I had everything for several years without ordering anything online. Lighting a homemade BM with pyrotechnics instead of a visco fuse is not a healthy thing to do. Do you think someone who understands it better can't solve it discreetly?!

Here in Hungary, you cannot legally make any pyrotechnic device. If you have a pyrotechnic qualification that allows you to make it, even in this case have no chance of getting a license to make anything at home. In Germany, if someone has a pyrotechnics license, they get much more freedom than we do.

Which do you think is more dangerous, buying ready-made ingredients or making them at home? Professional visco safety fuse Vs homemade black mach, buying Magnesium powder or ball milling it? Do you think someone who is really interested in this hobby will stop because politicians and authorities don't like it?

I could tell you about the methods the authorities tried in my case. But I'm a bigger fish with a dozen of my own content than a no-name person. I've ordered a lot of things from a lot of places, in pyrotechnics case, I've never had to deal face-to face with the police.

[WalterWhite]

9 minutes ago, mx5kevin said:

If the authorities were to crack down on amateurs en masse, large European pyroshops would lose significant customers. But these are all legal chemicals and raw materials. How many people do you think buy safety fuse, oxidizer, and metal powder at a pyro shop at the same time with one order? Many people because it's economical. Do you think they will report their customers to the authorities? But let's get back to the point that these are legal to buy and possess.

In Hungary, according to the laws, for this to be a crime, it would have to be proven that you intended to make explosives from it (and not pyrotechnic compositions which, if caught, is just a violation of the rules, which carries a fine), because they are legal in themselves.

If they find KClO3, KClO4 and restricted precursors In our country, they are also considered a violation and are subject to a fine. Of course, this also includes proving who owns it.

„If an economic operator detects a suspicious transaction or disappearance (possibly also related to theft) involving them, they must report it to the Malta Police Force1 within 24 hours”.

I don't know of any that would report every single customer, but there would be quite a few. Do you think they store all this data in a system for 5-10 years? In detail, who bought what? How many of these do you think a store sells on a daily basis? They didn't break down the door en masse on amateur pyrotechnicians. If this happened to someone, someones, tell us exactly what happened and how.

Do you think the authorities will break down your door just because you buy a 25kg bag of potassium nitrate? Or do you buy a total of 5kg of metal powder? Let's look at the facts, they don't write such things en masse. Where this happened, it took significantly more than that.

But who is really worried:

Aluminum and magnesium can be made at home, everything can be purchased personally without any ID, or personal information. When I started, I had everything for several years without ordering anything online. Lighting a homemade BM with pyrotechnics instead of a visco fuse is not a healthy thing to do. Do you think someone who understands it better can't solve it discreetly?!

Here in Hungary, you cannot legally make any pyrotechnic device. If you have a pyrotechnic qualification that allows you to make it, even in this case have no chance of getting a license to make anything at home. In Germany, if someone has a pyrotechnics license, they get much more freedom than we do.

Which do you think is more dangerous, buying ready-made ingredients or making them at home? Professional visco safety fuse Vs homemade black mach, buying Magnesium powder or ball milling it? Do you think someone who is really interested in this hobby will stop because politicians and authorities don't like it?

I could tell you about the methods the authorities tried in my case. But I'm a bigger fish with a dozen of my own content than a no-name person. I've ordered a lot of things from a lot of places, in pyrotechnics case, I've never had to deal face-to face with the police.

You can be very happy and relaxed, to live in hungary, but believe me, in Germany it is different, and yes, they WILL break your door, if you don't open when the cops are ringing and they know, that you are at home!
But better be prepared: as far as I know, the EU is trying everything, to force other countries to make their restrictions stronger too, and in Poland with some effort already, they don't want the fact anymore, that it's so easy to just go into other Schengen-countries, to buy what anyone wants.
So it's no mistake, to stockpile precious and important chems, als long as you can do that with ease.
But no matter what comes, as an elemental chemist, I am still able to produce almost everything on my own, it's hard work of course, and maybe much more expensive too, but still possible, also I am developing practical solutions, for what may come in future. Every chemical has been made somehow - and so we can do it too!

[Arthur]

When "Royal Gunpowder Mills" (Look it up!) was the UK's source of powder for the Army and Navy, they had nitrate collectors (People) who traveled the country and returned with (very rough!) sodium nitrate. This was collected from cess pits and compost heaps -these were among the most hated "tax collectors" because they took the fertiliser from the farmers. The collected material was purified by recrystalisation and then treated with wood ash (which is rich in potassium) to precipitate out potassium nitrate.

Perhaps there is a way to return to first principles to find a way to make pot nitrate by leaving nature to do it's thing. Remember that the Chinese had Black Powder long before they had chemical factories putting potassium nitrate into polythene sacks.

Nine months making pot nitrate may be needed to make pyro in places where it's not retail.

 

[bugmenot1]

18 hours ago, WalterWhite said:

The 13-0-46 is illegal to buy, sell or even own it in EU, for private persons, since they changed the laws. Like almost for every common oxidizer for pyrotec.

You literally wouldn't find KNO3 here anywhere anymore and if one should sell it to you, he is comitting a crime! That's the reality here.

Yes, some still may offer it online - but if you want to order it, as a private person, you have to send all your data and identity card, tell the purpose you want to buy it for - and as I already said, there are really good chances, you get visited at home by the cops, if you have no good reasons to buy the stuff, like being a farmer or something like that. I know a lot of people, who experienced exactly that.
If you don't believe me, ask some other German, I know at least one other here, than me (@PyroGalaxy).

We understand that it is a crime to possess and sell this in Germany and the EU, which in this form is a lie. However, a few comments later, it turns out that legal online stores are selling it in Germany and the EU, and that it is not a crime for private individuals to purchase and possess it, even in your location. 

18 hours ago, WalterWhite said:

but if you want to order it, as a private person, you have to send all your data and identity card, tell the purpose you want to buy it for - and as I already said, there are really good chances, you get visited at home by the cops, if you have no good reasons to buy the stuff, like being a farmer or something like that. I know a lot of people, who experienced exactly that. 

The story could be acceptable if you hadn’t previously made a very contradictory and false statement—one that a more experienced amateur chemist wouldn’t say.

Here, we deal with amateur pyrotechnics, and NPK fertilizer is of no use to us, especially the widespread 1-1-1. At least, no one extracts anything from it that would be broadly or narrowly beneficial for our purposes. If you were to look for a water-soluble fertilizer, like 3-1-2, and completely remove the phosphorus in an insoluble form, even then, it would not always be possible to definitively determine what the resulting crystal is. Even pure nitric acid could not be guaranteed to be produced safely with this method. You might nitrate a batch of urea and heat the urea nitrate, which is a high explosive, in a distillation apparatus.

[bugmenot1]

People widely engage in simple and convenient activities. The more complicated something is, the fewer people do it. This hobby is dying because it’s simply complicated to solve even the simplest things here.

[WalterWhite]

4 hours ago, bugmenot1 said:

We understand that it is a crime to possess and sell this in Germany and the EU, which in this form is a lie. However, a few comments later, it turns out that legal online stores are selling it in Germany and the EU, and that it is not a crime for private individuals to purchase and possess it, even in your location. 

 

Go on, talking your Bullshit.
As a German, I for sure know better, what is still legal here and what not. There is a long list, with "explosives precursors" - that all were made ILLEGAL if you are private and don't have special licenses, to order them, like for school experiments, university, professional use and so on.
The List includes Chlorates and Perchlorates with purity of 40% and above, as well as HNO3 above 3% and H2SO4 above 15%.
I know that the Law sounds very strange and of course they have problems, because it WAS legal before and the chemicals are still everwhere and some stores even didn't stop selling them already, but it doesn't change the fact, that everything you have, will get confiscated without compensation and you get a fine additionally. 
And I know a lot of guys, who get raided, just after ordering and receiving them. Believe it or not, and keep on to call me "liar" - it doesn't matter to me, I just laugh about you. 

[WalterWhite]

4 hours ago, Arthur said:

When "Royal Gunpowder Mills" (Look it up!) was the UK's source of powder for the Army and Navy, they had nitrate collectors (People) who traveled the country and returned with (very rough!) sodium nitrate. This was collected from cess pits and compost heaps -these were among the most hated "tax collectors" because they took the fertiliser from the farmers. The collected material was purified by recrystalisation and then treated with wood ash (which is rich in potassium) to precipitate out potassium nitrate.

Perhaps there is a way to return to first principles to find a way to make pot nitrate by leaving nature to do it's thing. Remember that the Chinese had Black Powder long before they had chemical factories putting potassium nitrate into polythene sacks.

Nine months making pot nitrate may be needed to make pyro in places where it's not retail.

 

Yeah, that's true, and even without our new technology, they still were able to produce enough gunpowder for all their guns and cannons, to fight big, bloody wars. So yes, I think if nothing else goes anymore, it's still possible to make nitrate effectively, from own body produced urea.
Cody's Lab on YT, successfully presents some experiments on that topic. The newest, uses an aquaristic pump, which is pumping around his pee-water in a circle, above an charcoal-filter and it seems to produce a nitrate solution successfully. Very interesting and I guess, it will work same way, or better, with commercially available, pure urea-fertilizer.
In addition to that, there is still the Birkeland-Eyde-Process, even if energetically very inefficient, and finally, the possibility, to oxidize Ammonia over a catalyst, like some Youtubers already did that successfully. Only producing the Ammonia from the elements, is still a task what most people can't handle, due to the needed pressure and temperature in the Haber-Bosch-Reaction. But Ammonia can also get produced from Urea or any Ammonia-salt.

[Arthur]

It's certain that ALL BP in the world originated from natural biological nitrogen compounds. While it's nice to have plastic bottles of each possible ingredient sometimes those have to be synthesised.

[bugmenot1]

Walter White, this is learned professional jargon, spiced up with Rube Goldberg machine ideas.  My opinion is that you’re not involved in amateur chemistry at any level, and you're not really here as an amateur chemist either. Technically, you have no grasp of how these things actually work. I’ve counted six people on this forum who are currently active, and I think it’s pretty obvious what their intentions are.

Let’s stick to the simple things, things that are achievable for everyone. Even the professionals don’t complicate things unnecessarily :). Beginners won’t even attempt something if it’s more complicated. And if anyone says something, show a reference or something transparent, because it’s easy to write novels about nonsense.

If something happened in Germany and someone wrote about it, we’d like to read that too. If anyone knows good techniques in any field, let’s see them in a way that’s clear to everyone. Those who know what they’re talking about can present things transparently, while those who don’t just speak vaguely and make excuses. We prefer clear and straightforward information, not rambling nonsense.