Storing nitric acid

xelexo
Advertise with us
Shop deals on ebay
shop deals on amazon
Gold Refining Forum

Help Support Gold Refining Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
I would worry more about the muriatic (HCl). It's a gas dissolved in water that's constantly trying to escape. It's extremely fumey and rusts everything in its path. The jugs it comes in don't last as long as a good gallon jug from a chemical or lab supply. I've seen a lot of them eventually leak. Same with bleach jugs. Put the jug or bottles in a new 5 gallon bucket and snap the lid on it. The last lids I bought from Walmart, with a gasket, were made to solidly lock-on, over and over. Unlike the ones you cut, I was only able to remove them with a very thick, cheap, special plastic prying tool from Walmart, which I had to grind down a little to make it work. The lid will reseal as tight as ever. In the basement, a gallon of muriatic in a 5 gallon bucket has been setting for at least 5 years with no evidence of leakage. I would do the same with nitric, strong peroxide, and ammonia jugs. By the way, with jugs of 30-50% H2O2, either don't put the lid on tight or drill about a 1/16" hole in the lid, especially in warm weather.

I would prefer not to store nitric and muriatic in the same container - AR fumes are even worse than HCl fumes. Never store any chemical in the sun.

I've been working with white! plastic buckets and good translucent plastic chemical jugs, almost daily, all my working life. Most had acid in them at least 1/2 of the time, often strong and sometimes hot. In all those 10's of thousands of hours, I have never seen a bucket bail fail, even when I was carrying 60 pounds in it, over and over. I trust those bails. I can hardly remember seeing a bail that was rusty. I have never seen HDPE fail unless it were sitting in the sun. When I used the "nitric in increments" AR method, I would add the HCl and HNO3 full strength from HDPE plastic gallon jugs - a shot of this and a shot of that. The same jugs were constantly refilled and seemed to have lasted for years. I don't ever remember needing to change them.
http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/item.aspx?itemid=22728&catid=611 The round one on the left.
http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/files/drawings/66244.pdf The one with the screw-on lid (left).

Saying all of this, I always tried to keep all chemicals in the coolest spot and also in the dark, if possible.
 
In general, it is safe to store similar things together - acids with acids, bases with bases, oxidizers with oxidizers, etc. Nitric is tricky because it's an acid and an oxidizer, so it should be stored by itself.
There are good reasons to store different things in different compartments. acids and bases are obvious - they react violently with each other. oxidizers are less obvious, but in general they will make the acid or base more dangerous: maybe produce heat, maybe act as a catalyst to make the reaction happen much quicker, etc. Piranha Solution is a good example of what happens when you mix acids and oxidizers
Myself, I have a Rubbermaid shed in the back yard with a lock. Inside is a home-made wood box painted with epoxy resin w/ lid. 3 waterproof separate chambers inside - one big one for nitric, one small one for sulfuric and hydrochloric, 2nd small one for sodium hydroxide. It's not the best solution, but I feel it's not bad. All chemicals are stored in the container I got them in. The first thing I'd fix if I could would be to put the shed in a cooler place - maybe under a gazebo-type thing.
 
Howdy, all!

I won't be able to store Nitric acid in the house or in the garage, so either one of those Rubbermaid storage
bins or my backyard shed are my only options, it appears.

The acid will be exposed to temperatures in the upper 90's in the summer, and as low as -30F in the winter.

I'm assuming the heat will pose more of a problem than the cold, unless acid can freeze, in which case
I would have to heat the storage bin or shed during deepest winter.

Are there any storage options I've missed (other than a freezer/refrigerator)?

I'm open to any/all acid storage advice.

Cheers,

Mike
 
An old non working small insulated refrigerator cabinet, (with a padlock if kids).
Insulate a metal box cabinet.
Bury a five gallon bucket or tub in the ground (for insulation), set an insulated cover over the hole in the ground (again lockable if you have kids).

Just think outside of your box...
 
I've looked but havent found much on the safety of storing nitric acid in a refrigerator, I saw it mentioned but want to know if it's safe and if this may cause the acid to degrade or possibly alter is formula or composition
 
In my daily line of work, the useable life of PE-containers is 5 years.
Unless they contain nitric acid, in which case it is reduced to 2.5 years.

I once poked my finger through the side of a PE jug of red fuming nitric (thankfully above the liquid).
 
Okay, so if I get this right, you can't find an end-all solution to storing nitric acid, as anything will degrade/vent over time, even glass bottles with solid lids.
Couldn't it be a better solution to buy small amounts, use it during refining within a year, and then buy some more when needed?
 
Striker753 said:
Okay, so if I get this right, you can't find an end-all solution to storing nitric acid, as anything will degrade/vent over time, even glass bottles with solid lids.
Couldn't it be a better solution to buy small amounts, use it during refining within a year, and then buy some more when needed?
Click to expand...

It's not quite as cut and dried as that. Store it in proper acid bottles whether plastic or glass. Make sure they are opaque. Don't store in direct sunlight, and put them somewhere out of the house where youve got as little of the extremes of temperature as possible.

Think of it as gasoline- where would you store that and feel safe?

Assuming the seals are good on the containers you will be alright. The storage "hole" isn't a bad idea provided you don't just create a subterranean oven.
 
Gasoline turns to jelly under storage, even with stabilizers added it does not have a long storage life.
Gas storage in a tank is about a month, in a sealed container under proper conditions you might get a year if the sealed container is vented the storage life for gas is around 6 months @ 20 degrees centigrade, or 3 months @ 30 degrees centigrade...
Diesel stores much better and for much longer, but is subject to moisture and molds and should be tested while in storage.


68% nitric acid will stay fresh in the glass or keg when stored under proper conditions.

The only problem I have had storing nitric in the glass is the lids would decompose and get brittle after long periods of time (year), I just keep a few extra bottle caps and check them now and then.
 
924T said:
Howdy, all!

I won't be able to store Nitric acid in the house or in the garage, so either one of those Rubbermaid storage
bins or my backyard shed are my only options, it appears.

The acid will be exposed to temperatures in the upper 90's in the summer, and as low as -30F in the winter.

I'm assuming the heat will pose more of a problem than the cold, unless acid can freeze, in which case
I would have to heat the storage bin or shed during deepest winter.

Are there any storage options I've missed (other than a freezer/refrigerator)?

I'm open to any/all acid storage advice.

Cheers,

Mike
Click to expand...

Last time I got a refrigerator, I got it for free. Ok, I had to go pick it up.
It was a mess, full of mold and it smelled.
Clean-up took a lot of soap, water, elbow grease and baking soda.
It was also ugly and I had to epoxy some of the plastic parts back together.
It worked fine for a patio-based beer caddy, but I could never get the ice maker working.
Check your local Craig's List, and look under the "Free" column.
I bet you could find one to use for chemical storage.

-- Thipdar
 
I've been able to find some nitric, but about the only way to purchase it at anything resembling a reasonable price is in bulk. I'm ok with that, and have lined up what should be suitable plastic jugs for storage. The problem I have is how to transfer it from the bulk container to the jugs. Any suggestions on an economical pump that would be suitable for the task? Or a method of transferring the acid? The place I'm purchasing it through use really nifty, fancy chemical/acid rated pumps, but I can't afford the $$ that one costs, especially for something that I'll probably use once in my life. Thanks!
 
First, I wouldn't recommend plastic jugs for long term storage. The acid will attack the plastic over time, making it brittle. You don't want to pick up a jug some day and have it fail.

You can transfer it with a simple piece of plastic tubing. Put on some good gloves, a face shield, and an apron. Fill an appropriate length of tubing with water. Place a finger over one end of the tubing. Place the other end into the bulk container. Lower the finger covered end, still covered by your finger, to the mouth of the container you're going to fill, and remove your finger. Once the container is near full, you can pinch a loop of the tubing together to stop the flow, move the discharge end of the tubing to the next container, and release the pinched loop.

Practice with a large jug of water first to get the hang of it.

Dave
 
FrugalRefiner said:
Fill an appropriate length of tubing with water.

Dave
Click to expand...

If you intend to use the nitric for silver refining "make sure" you use D-water to start your siphon

If you use tap water to start the siphon you are going to end up with chlorine in your nitric & you DO NOT want chlorine in nitric you intend to use for refining silver --- a little bit of chlorine in nitric used for gold refining is not a problem but will certainly be a problem in silver refining

Here is some info I posted in 2016 about siphoning

:arrow: https://goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=40&t=24517&p=259224&hilit=siphon#p259224

Other members posted good info in that thread as well

Kurt
 
For larger siphon hoses you want the catheter tip syringes

:arrow: https://www.premier1supplies.com/p/catheter-tip-syringes?cat_id=145&msclkid=3df67d56b09b15c5a6951d547f6eec8d&utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=(ROI)%20Lambing%20%26%20Kidding%20Supplies&utm_term=catheter%20tip%20syringes&utm_content=Catheter%20Tip%20Syringes

Kurt
 
I'm in a similar conundrum.
I had to buy 25l 65% nitric if I wanted nitric at all, and have so far kept it in its orginal can.
It is however, quite cumbersome whenever I need to top up my bottles for use.
My current plan is to fill it in 1L bottles and vacuum pack them.
Then put the bottles inside plastic storage containers for final storage in a locked cabinet.
Still it my end up quite bulky so it may make more sense to use larger bottles.
Do anyne here have some tips regarding glass/boro bottles in a suitable size with matching plastic container?
I have been searching around, but it is easy to get overwhelmed by the results, so tips from people using it would quite valuable.
Or other Ideas on how to do it, for that matter.
 
Dave and Kurt, thank you both for your replies. I'll have to practice siphoning if I'm unable to find a reasonable pump. Thanks!
 
Kurts method works very well, I use it very often.


https://www.amazon.com/Siphon-Light-Kerosene-Water-Chemicals/dp/B000E5S33M/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=Kerosene+Pump&qid=1610909227&sr=8-3

If I were working from a keg or drum I would use a plastic pump like these. No batteries and no metal to corrode. They last a long time for nitric.
 
Thanks Shark, I had never even thought of a pump like that. I’ll have to give it a try
 
Hello.
My idea is to put a piece of steel nearby the storage place. It is a indicator. If it is a slightest leakage, the steel will get rusty in one night.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top