Listening to the podcast I got the chemistry/alchemy bug. It looks like most everything that's needed to do it is around. I thought I'd throw out my take ans see what people thought:
(Brimstone + Barrel) to Kiln =
Barrel of Liquid sulphur (Could emit terrible smell later on)
(Liquid Sulfur) to Still = Pure Sulphur
(Pure Suphur + Saltpeter + Bucket of water + Glass Vial) to Kiln/Alchemist Lab=
Vial of Vitriol(Vitriol + Rock Salt) to Alchemists Lab =
Vial of Muriatic Acid(Bag of Sand + Alunite + Saltpeter + Vial) to Still =
Vial of Aqua Fortis(Vial of Virtiol + Saltpeter) to Still = Vial of Aqua Fortis
(Muriatic Acid + Aqua Fortis) to Alchemists Lab =
Aqua RegiaPossible new rare mineral desposit -
Sal Ammoniac (Found in small clusters in Brimstone)
(Aqua Fortis + Sal Ammoniac) to Alchemists Lab = Aqua Regia
(Aqua Regia + Bar of Gold!) to Alchemists Lab = Transmuting Stone
(Transmuting Stone + 2 bars of lead/galena) to Smelter = 2 Bars of gold
! - You can only use a bar for this
Possible Mod:
Aqua Regia + Admanantine Wafer to Alchemists Lab = Urist McAlchemist's Stone
Urist McAlchemist's Stone + 2 Bars of Aluminum = 2 Adamantine Wafers
So we've got a basic alchemy structure here, based strongly in science up until the transmuting stone. At the same time, the components themselves can have individual uses. For example, say rust is introduced as a modifier that makes iron equipment less effective or iron furniture have less material value. Muriatic acid could be used as a rust remover. Aqua regia also turns bone and ivory purple and could add the ability to dye bones to raise their value. In fact, just being an acid it could have a variety of uses as pointed out in the podcast. And while the long Vitriol process is more historically accurate, it is a bit intensive, so I could see it being short circuited to just Brimstone and Saltpeter combined and skipping all the getting purified sulphur bit.