posted on May, 8 2004 @ 01:57 PM
Depending on the method of synthesis, hydrogen or other gases can be produced during methamphetamine synthesis. These are produced by ordinary
chemical means, not by fission or fusion.
You definitely would want to vent them. When gases are produced as a byproduct of a chemical reaction, you can get a *lot* of gas. The typical
expansion of materials going from solid/liquid to gas is 1000-fold. So you can easily wind up with a big mess if you don't deal with the gas
properly.
I have a background in chemistry. I used to use a lot of a chemical that wasn't cheaply available (2,5-dimethylthiophene), and so had to make it. The
best synthesis creates a sulfur-containing gas as a byproduct, which you catch in a "trap". So the first time I tried this synthesis, I figured the
trap would eliminate the gas (true) but didn't realize the pressure increase in the reaction vessel would still require a venting system. After a few
seconds of reaction, all the adapters blew out of the reaction flask, and the reagents got sprayed all over the interior of the fume hood. One of the
intermediate products smelled like concentrated cat urine, so I wasn't real popular for a while.
[Edited on 8-5-2004 by CoffeeMan]