Sciencemadness Discussion Board

What'd be some lucrative uses of cheap electricity?

math - 29-11-2025 at 06:32

Hi, I know similar questions were asked before, but never went that far or were maybe too specific.
I'd like to know what'd be some lucrative uses of cheap electricity, assuming re-selling it directly to the electricity grid is not feasible (off-grid).

I cannot use all my electricity from solar and the rechargeable battery is ok to fill my basic needs, so I'd like to turn that excess electricity produced into profit.

I remember people in the forum suggesting the following (in no specific order):
- mining crypto and then buying things from Merck or anywhere really
- making copper and sulfuric acid
- making chlorates
- making Hydroxylamine, Sodium nitrite, Formic acid, perchlorates, Periodates and derivatives (IBX and DMP), Sodium metal, Magnesium metal, Potassium hydroxide, Hydrazine salts, Sodium hydride, aluminium

Are there any other options you can think of?
How would you rank options from most profitable to least profitable?

I was thinking about induction furnaces to produce something (as I imagine some things inherently require a lot of energy to be produced), but again not sure really what is more profitable than say importing ready-made from Asia.

TL;DR: what are some options to turn excess electricity in profit, possibly the highest per kWh used and without investing a lot?

Thank you

chempyre235 - 29-11-2025 at 07:32

I think the scale of the synthesis will greatly impact profitability. One of the reasons that these things are imported from Asia, is that India and China produce chemicals on a massive scale, which makes the unit price cheaper than most other suppliers, even after tariffs, customs and shipping.

math - 29-11-2025 at 07:55

Quote: Originally posted by chempyre235  
I think the scale of the synthesis will greatly impact profitability. One of the reasons that these things are imported from Asia, is that India and China produce chemicals on a massive scale, which makes the unit price cheaper than most other suppliers, even after tariffs, customs and shipping.


Ok, still on a per kWh basis (thus regardless of scale) and on a minimal investment (thus no $1000 on equipment), what'd be one of the most lucrative things to do with that electricity?

Thanks

Radiums Lab - 29-11-2025 at 08:23

I would make hard to acquire reagents or even F2 :D and sell it among reputed and well known members.

[Edited on 29-11-2025 by Radiums Lab]

chloric1 - 30-11-2025 at 05:19

Like said above, it’s virtually impossible to compete with Chinese and Indian manufacturers. Instead of profit you should look at it from the perspective of savings. Like how much money would you save making 1 kg of your own sodium chlorate from sodium chloride? You might not even be able to buy sodium chlorate where your at! That way you don’t have a traceable transaction that the authorities could exploit. On the other hand some reagents are better purchased if they don’t bring unwanted attention. You’ll have to weigh this on a per reagent basis.

math - 30-11-2025 at 13:02

Quote: Originally posted by chloric1  
Like said above, it’s virtually impossible to compete with Chinese and Indian manufacturers. Instead of profit you should look at it from the perspective of savings. Like how much money would you save making 1 kg of your own sodium chlorate from sodium chloride? You might not even be able to buy sodium chlorate where your at! That way you don’t have a traceable transaction that the authorities could exploit. On the other hand some reagents are better purchased if they don’t bring unwanted attention. You’ll have to weigh this on a per reagent basis.


Thanks for the input. While I'd make it, I have no real use for it and would end up having too much of it, that's why I'd rather convert the extra electricity I can't use into cash or something else valuable.

chloric1 - 1-12-2025 at 11:33

Understandable. If electrolysis is not your bag you can use the electricity for stirring, heating or running pumps. Split it up safely with fused connections and run multiple projects at once. For example vacuum filtration wet crystals with a suitable pump while distilling some fresh acid from a metal salt solution plus sulfuric or sodium bisulfate for example

stygian - 1-12-2025 at 11:35

Im betting $0 making peroxide/persulfates is the best you could do. Just gotta find a buyer

clearly_not_atara - 1-12-2025 at 14:09

How are you going to move the product? You can't just become a chemical vendor without even a permit for producing stuff.

Anyway you will want to limit capex and regulatory exposure. And you want to use freely available materials.

Birkeland-Eyde is interesting, more interesting though is making nitrite instead of fertilizer because it's roughly the same process but the product is sold in lower volumes and at higher prices (that's you).

Another possibility is biomass to ethylene glycol. Surprisingly this is a retro-aldol decomposition of sugars and not a biological process. If you have a good source of free biomass you might just be able to compete with hardware store antifreeze.

And of course you could try electrolyzing waste to extract metals. There are a lot of variations of this process but I am not very familiar with it.

MrDoctor - 2-12-2025 at 03:33

flash graphene is turbostratic graphene which is supposedly one of the more useful and versatile types. this process also basically rearranges a lot of the waste gas into hydrogen and methane which are also valuable. anything to carbonaceous to leave the system just makes graphene again in the next load.
Now selling that graphene is another matter. you can add it to concrete and it makes concrete WAY stronger sure, but that fact isnt likely to get you money, just stronger concrete, or, it gets you increased value, in a non-monetary form.
A business venture that uses a particular product that costs money, as an intermediate, that you can omit, becomes a superior business, and you make money that way, like that cattle farm that started feeding their cows red-algae or kelp or something and it almost eliminated methane emissions (eventual tax benefits), and also made the cows so healthy their grading and yield bumped up a bit.
you wont make money selling chemicals unless you cater to pyromaniacs/pyrotechnic enthusiasts by making chlorate/perchlorate and selling it on etsy. But you can make money by starting a business and being your own customer base for a singular specific process/product and either using the power to mitigate expenses or increase value of a product or service, where you only need to gear quality control to this singular application, otherwise theres no way you can compete against big-chemical and people who just buy 50 gallon drums of chemical X for $0.79/gal.

cost mitigation is where you should focus. like look at things that produce expensive waste that is expensive to process, and process it.
If you hypothetically began a TNT factory, you could hugely undercut the market if you could use free power to destroy the immensely volumous, toxic waste product, "red water" that forms as a result of washing or decomposing the many undesired byproducts/isomers of MNT/DNT/TNT, my understanding is that waste disposal is so expensive that its why the US cant produce as much of either the worlds, or its own, TNT anymore, compared to others that are still willing to pollute their rivers and water tables, plants are bottlenecked by environmental/waste management policy, and my guess is that theres no good balance for cheap vs quick that lets them scale output.

for a better real world case at smaller scale, a process that involves electro-synthesized chlorine or bleach might be more appropriate or realistic for where lots of gaseous chlorine is needed.
Nitric acid is a dead end though, cleaning shops sell 68% conc stuff for close to the same price per volume as acetone or DCM. I can frankly make cheaper KNO3 by buying nitric acid and free potassium, than i can make nitric acid by buying KNO3 and free sulfuric acid. even if you cant buy nitric acid like i can, local industry can and thats how the value of things around you will be set.

Dr.Bob - 2-12-2025 at 10:48

Short of smelting aluminum or making steel, mining crypto might be the only scalable thing that won't require huge investments. Making KClO4 might be OK, but hard to scale up and it requires a lot of work and chemicals, plus Pt electrodes.

chloric1 - 2-12-2025 at 10:58

Quote: Originally posted by Dr.Bob  
Short of smelting aluminum or making steel, mining crypto might be the only scalable thing that won't require huge investments. Making KClO4 might be OK, but hard to scale up and it requires a lot of work and chemicals, plus Pt electrodes.


Nah, it’s okay for a huge manufacturer but for small scale use, it’s just better to make chlorates from disproportionation of calcium hypochlorite and the perchlorate can be had by melting the chlorate carefully. Other methods include digesting potassium chlorate with concentrated acid like nitric acid. Remember, scientists were aware of these salts long before electrolysis was widely used or available.

MrDoctor - 3-12-2025 at 02:54

you dont need Pt electrodes for perchlorate, lead dioxide at the right current density, possibly doped with something like tantalum iirc, lasts an incredibly long time

pesco - 13-12-2025 at 23:20

Quote: Originally posted by clearly_not_atara  
How are you going to move the product? You can't just become a chemical vendor without even a permit for producing stuff.


Thats exactly what i hate the most - the socialistic/totalitarian mindset that presumes everything needs a permit.

I do produce some chemicals and I do have a permit. Given by my wife. The only person who is entitled to give such permit.

pesco - 13-12-2025 at 23:30

There are many things you could do with cheap/free electricity. The simplest one is running crypto. Other potential activity is services - charging batteries, cooking food, recycling plastic by reforming etc.


Activities related to this forum are pretty much limited to reagents production. Depending on where you live, some chemicals are delegalized. If you are in EU/UK forget about selling chlorates, sulphuric, nitric and whold host of others.
You could still produce nitric quietly, and use it to make nitrates (some are deligilized in EU/UK), then flog the salts.
Electrolysis is a great way to produce many. Easy, clean, but might be lengthy.

Edit: misspellings.

[Edited on 14-12-2025 by pesco]

PonderosaP - 14-12-2025 at 09:26

Quote: Originally posted by math  
Hi, I know similar questions were asked before, but never went that far or were maybe too specific.
I'd like to know what'd be some lucrative uses of cheap electricity, assuming re-selling it directly to the electricity grid is not feasible (off-grid).

I cannot use all my electricity from solar and the rechargeable battery is ok to fill my basic needs, so I'd like to turn that excess electricity produced into profit.

I remember people in the forum suggesting the following (in no specific order):
- mining crypto and then buying things from Merck or anywhere really
- making copper and sulfuric acid
- making chlorates
- making Hydroxylamine, Sodium nitrite, Formic acid, perchlorates, Periodates and derivatives (IBX and DMP), Sodium metal, Magnesium metal, Potassium hydroxide, Hydrazine salts, Sodium hydride, aluminium

Are there any other options you can think of?
How would you rank options from most profitable to least profitable?

I was thinking about induction furnaces to produce something (as I imagine some things inherently require a lot of energy to be produced), but again not sure really what is more profitable than say importing ready-made from Asia.

TL;DR: what are some options to turn excess electricity in profit, possibly the highest per kWh used and without investing a lot?

Thank you

If you're serious about this (which I sort of doubt) you should consider biological production of products refined or aged. What fragrant flowers/plants could you grow on your estate? Steam distill those into essential oils. What fermentable berries could you grow? Ferment and age those into fine local wines. Barley? Potatoes? Build a reflux still. These are borderline appropriate for this discussion space. You'd get a far greater ROI on time asking this question in a space less bound by legal constraints, with accompanying greater personal risk.
TL;DR redd*t is down the hall and to the left.

Varungh - 6-2-2026 at 00:52

Plastic is ubiquitous and freely found as trash. It can be converted into petrol like hydrocarbons by heating(cracking)
Maybe try that.the Capital needed is cheap. Say about a vaccum pump, some iron pipes, a drum and a collection vessel. And of course some heater wire
You can also try calcining limestone and selling it.
You can do the Chlor alkali thing, make bleach and sell it. And make NaOH and sell it.
You can try the le blanc process(if you know someone who needs sulfides)