Making silicon rich water weekly at home is easy and much less expensive
and more sustainable than purchasing water bottled in Fiji or Malaysia. I call this water “Silicade” and there is a
You Tube Video on how to make it at “Silica Water – How to Make it at Home”. Silicade provides 124ppm
of dissolved silica to lower your body-burden of aluminum. Silicade preparation
requires only two ingredients and a set of small measuring spoons that in the
U.S.A. can be purchased online and shipped to your home. Silicade can be stored indefinitely in the
dark like Fiji water. The chemicals to
make Silicade store well and should be kept out of children’s reach:
·
Low Alkalinity Hydrous Sodium
Silicate: a hydrous powder available online from ChemicalStore.com. The powder is safer and easier to measure than the liquid form but
has the same ratio of 3.22 SiO2 to Na2O. The powder has a
as a purity of 99.5% and a formula of SiO2[Na2O]1/3.22
H2O (18.5% water) Mw of 97.25. Only order “sodium silicate – low
alkalinity”. Do not order “sodium
silicate – alkaline” from the ChemicalStore.com or Zchemicals.com. This powdery chemical can be stored
indefinitely in its screw-cap plastic container but slowly clumps. The clumps
are easily converted back to powder with a small mortar and pestle.
Note: This solid sodium silicate from the Chemical Store is Product G manufactured
by the PQ Corporation of Valley Forge, PA. Brenntag Specialties (Telephone No. 888-926-4151)
buys Product G from PQ Corporation and resells it worldwide as G Sodium
Silicate product number 387721 in 50 pound bags. ChemicalStore.com and
Zchemicals.com buy this product from Brenntag Specialties and sell it in 2
pound containers online.
·
Sodium Bisulfate (a.k.a. Sodium Hydrogen Sulfate): a white powder 99.5% pure of micro-prills (i.e. very small
pellets) from Professor Fullwood of LoudWolf Ltd. is available from Amazon. Note:
both optional calcium chloride and magnesium chloride are available from the
same source.
·
Mini Measuring Spoon Set: Norpro
3061D from Dine Company Online. Currently priced under $4 without shipping.
Three measuring spoons come attached to a single ring. Only the dash (1/8 of a
teaspoon) and smidgen (1/32 of a teaspoon) are used for Silicade preparation. In
order to avoid accidental use of the wrong measuring spoon, remove the pinch from
the ring. Note: in the early 2000’s some companies, such as Norpro and Dine, began
defining and accurately calibrating the dash and smidgen measuring spoons as precise
fractions of a teaspoon. Do not use antique dash and smidgen measuring spoons
as they may not be correctly calibrated.
·
Spatula: Any small spatula with a straight-edge works to level the contents of
the measuring spoons prior to addition.
Detailed Instructions
with Options for Making Silicade
By following these detailed instructions you can prepare a gallon of
Silicade or just follow the “Short Recipe for Silicade” that follows after
these detailed instructions:
1)
A level dash and two level smidgens (3/16 of a teaspoon, 600mg) of hydrous
powdered sodium silicate is placed in a Pyrex glass measuring cup. Add 1/8 cup
of tap water and bring to boiling in the microwave or on the stove, and let boil
for 30sec. This powder contains 99.5% water soluble sodium silicate monohydrate
and a maximum of 0.5% of water insoluble materials, as required by the American
Waterworks Standard B104-98 for adding sodium silicate to drinking water23.
Note: Do not heat to
boiling more than 1/8 cup of tap water as more water will lower the pH making
the sodium silicate less soluble.
2)
The hot water with dissolved sodium silicate is immediately diluted to
one gallon (3.785 liters) with cold tap water resulting in a 1.29 mM/liter (124ppm)
solution of pH 9.8 OSA.
3)
One level dash (1/8 of a teaspoon, 0.83 gr, 6.9 mM) of sodium
bisulfate is added to the solution of OSA and dissolved with stirring in order
to acidify the solution to pH 4 to 5. Optionally,
if tap water is more basic than pH 8.5, use a pH meter while slowly adding a
little more sodium bisulfate in order to lower the pH to 4.0-5.0. A pH 7.0 standard
solution is recommended for periodic calibration of the pH meter.
4)
The clear colorless acidic solution of OSA is further purified by
filtering through a Brita pitcher style filter resulting in OSA at a pH of 4.4.
This removes impurities added with sodium silicate and sodium bisulfate.
5)
Two level smidgens of sodium bicarbonate (a.k.a. baking soda) are
added and dissolved with stirring in the gallon of filtered OSA, resulting in Silicade
with a pH of 6.5, a TDS of 285 at 25oC, and less than 2mcg/L labile
aluminum. Each quart of Silicade
contains 36.5mg of dissolved silicon as 124ppm of monomeric (OSA).
6)
Optionally make
Silicade Plus Calcium, if tap water is low in calcium, add two level dashes of calcium
chloride flakes or prills (840mg 36% calcium) 99% pure from Loudwolf/Amazon.
This will increase the calcium level by 80 ppm, the TDS to 450 at 25oC,
and the pH to 6.6 in a gallon of Silicade + Ca. Labile aluminum in calcium
enriched Silicade is less than 2mcg/L. Calcium at
concentrations greater than or equal to 75ppm have a significant protective
effect on cognition433.
Optionally in order to increase magnesium by 20ppm add a dash of
magnesium chloride hexahydrate (>98%
purity) from LoudWolf/Amazon. Optionally make
Sparkling Silicade – Carbonating Silicade will result in a pH 4.5 sparkling beverage.
Drink 3 to 4 cups of Silicade a day around
meal times in order to provide a total of 25.5 to 34mg of silicon as monomeric
OSA. This is 7.7 to 10.3 times the 3.3mg of silicon that when consumed as OSA
per day was observed to lower the frequency of AD118. Silicade contains 124ppm of OSA and in the U.S.A. 160ppm of OSA (i.e. 100ppm of SiO2) is
generally recognized as safe in drinking water22.
Short Recipe for
Silicade
Ingredients
needed:
·
Sodium Silicate
·
Sodium Bisulfate
·
Baking Soda (sodium
bicarbonate)
Tools
needed:
·
Dash measuring spoon = 1/8 tsp
·
Smidgen measuring spoon = 1/32 tsp
·
1 cup Pyrex measuring cup
·
1 gallon measuring container
·
Brita filter - pitcher style
·
Spatula for leveling
·
Stirring utensil
Steps:
1. Add
1 level dash & 2 level smidgens of sodium silicate to a one-cup Pyrex
container
2.
Add 1/8 cup of tap water to the one-cup Pyrex measuring container
3.
Heat the contents of the Pyrex measuring cup to boiling and boil
for at least 30 seconds
4. Dilute
immediately with a small amount of unheated tap water
5. Pour
all the contents of the Pyrex measuring cup into a 1 gallon container
6. Fill
the 1 gallon container with unheated tap water to the 1 gallon mark on the
container
7.
Add 1 level dash of sodium bisulfate to the one gallon container
8.
Stir the mixture thoroughly and then filter the mixture through a Brita
filter pitcher
9.
After filtering, add 2 level smidgens of baking soda (sodium
bicarbonate) to the mixture
10. Stir
Silicade to dissolve the baking soda
11. Enjoy
the health benefits of drinking Silicade!
Silicade can be stored indefinitely in the dark at room temperature or in a refrigerator.
Why This Recipe
Works
The goal of this recipe for orthosilicic acid
(OSA) in drinking water is to use an easily measured solid silica powder and an
acidic microprill that are commercially available online and shipped to anyone,
not just chemical laboratories. Both of these chemicals are high purity (e.g.
99.5%).
·
Solubilize sodium
silicate: Boiling powdered sodium silicate for 30 seconds in an eighth of a cup
of tap water keeps the pH high enough (e.g. pH = 13) to solubilize silicate434-436.
·
Neutralize to form
OSA and prevent polymerization: In order to form OSA and other silica species
in equilibrium with OSA489 and to prevent OSA polymerization435-437,
immediately dilute the basic (e.g. pH=13) OSA solution to a gallon with tap
water and then immediately render the
solution non-hazardous by acidifying the solution to pH 4 to 5 with the
solid acid sodium bisulfate. A 1.29mM OSA solution is well below OSA’s
saturation level in water (e.g. 2-3mM) but requires 7 days to fully stabilize
rising from 108ppm immediately after preparation to 124ppm174. Polymerization of OSA
has been observed at neutral pH only well above OSA’s 200ppm saturation level435-437.
·
Remove Aluminum: For optimal
aluminum removal acidify the OSA solution with sodium bisulfate to pH 4.0 to
5.0 and then filter through a Brita pitcher style filter (OB03)174. A significant
portion (e.g. 98.5%) of the labile aluminum introduced in tap water is removed174,175.
This Brita filter is a combined activated
carbon and weak cation exchange resin that removes cations like aluminum but
does not remove OSA174. If
the tap water used for Silicade is between pH 6.5 to 8.5, as per EPA’s
secondary drinking water standard, then after acidification, filtration, and
bicarbonate addition Silicade will be pH 6.5.
·
Optionally add
Calcium and/or Magnesium: Have your tap water checked and if it is low in calcium and/or magnesium, add
supplemental calcium and/or magnesium to Silicade. The Brita filter reduces calcium and magnesium in
Quabbin tap water by one half175. Drinking water with calcium at levels of 80mg and
magnesium at levels of 20 ppm has been found to be optimal for good health438. This may be due to calcium and magnesium competing
with aluminum for absorption by the gut433. Calcium catalyzes the polymerization of OSA but
only at pH greater than 818,19.
Silicade + Ca is pH 6.6 and at this pH OSA in Silicade + Ca
is primarily a non-polymeric monomer174,439.
Here is a link to answers for frequently asked questions about making Silicade. FAQ Silicade
