PeterM
Well-known member
If anything you could use a Vacuum Gauge on it, and that's only to tell if it's clogged up and not working, you always want full vacuum.
advice on fume scrubber _fumescrubber_
- Thread starter delboy9891
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Easy enough to put a vacuum guage on it, like I said this will be the most important piece of equipment I will ever have, safety first, the other thing I am studying at the moment is safely dealing with the waste, when I am confident of that only then will I start refining
Hi all, I am looking to get a little more serious. I have noticed here that some use a condenser above the reaction vessel. I think it is a good idea to keep the volume steady and eliminate some vapors.. I will build the scrubber but I noticed some people talking about a basic liquid (NaOH) followed by activated carbon filter. I wanted to know your opinion about the use of activated carbon. If not necessary then I just use a base such as NaOH for scrubbing.
Thank you
Thank you
A Reflux condenser is best suited for that or an Allihn condenser will work if your in a pinch.
Thank you Eaglekeeper. I am wondering about the use of activated carbon. One company that noone likes advertises a simple passive activated carbon scrubber. It claims that is enough. I want to get rid of most of the smell and toxic vapors. I was wondering if anyone has any experience with it.
Carbon isn't a good idea if there will be any nitric fumes. Mixing nitrates with carbon-based materials can create some energetic compounds. Think black powder, gun cotton, etc.
Dave
Dave
ok thanks Dave
triumphrat650
New member
what is the purpose of the condensor on top of the reactor?
A condenser effectively condenses the fume and "recycles" some of the nitric back into the reaction effectively lowering the overall nitric consumed in the reaction. 
These are condensers on 22 liter sealed reactors. All of the fumes travel up through the condenser and are picked up in a duct leading to a fume scrubber.
These are condensers on 22 liter sealed reactors. All of the fumes travel up through the condenser and are picked up in a duct leading to a fume scrubber.
PeterM
Well-known member
Condensers are a must. Safety is a must.
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I like your scrubber setup. Simple inexpensive glass gallon jugs. I have found that NOx degrades black rubber stoppers, silicone stoppers are much better and easy to find on line. No need to run out and change them but for someone setting up, start with silicone.
I notice you do not let the condensed fumes back into the reaction but collect the condensate in a receiver. I never did that but it is good practice especially where height considerations do not allow condensate to drip back into the reaction.
Your vacuum system is also nice and compact.
We can all learn a lot about setups when we see photo's, especially when the software allows us to zoom in. Nice job!
PeterM
Well-known member
4Metals, Basically in the orange 5-gallon pail, is a Swamp cooler pump to supply water to cool to the condensers. Also in the pail is a Venturi, so while the water pump on the lid is pumping water through the venturi inside scrubbing the fumes, yet creating a vacuum through the glass jugs and is self-contained. It's virtually quiet, with no fume or odor. Hope you liked it. There is a reason for removing the distillate and not condensing, that I'm not willing to talk about as it's proprietary. You can buy the water pump from ebay.
Respectfully,
P
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PeterM
Well-known member
If you need any more info, just ask...
Nice video, a picture is worth a 1000 words but a real time video is priceless. Thank you.
Another thing this points out is the fact that your scrubber does not need to be in the hood taking up often precious space. (Pun intended!)
Another thing this points out is the fact that your scrubber does not need to be in the hood taking up often precious space. (Pun intended!)
Not trying to pry anything proprietary from you but have you ever noticed, because you collected the condensed NOx separately, that the distillate contains some gold?
Before I just started to return the condensate to the reactor with gravity, I did a lot of testing using a multi-ratio Corad distilling head. (constant reflux ratio head)
Besides being costly these heads allowed me to take off specific fractions based on the reflux ratio. This is what it looked like.
Ironically I learned about this head from Gajda's book on gold refining (quite possibly the worst book ever written on the subject) The image above is from his book.
I did find different reflux fractions did contain different values, but in the long run, I was in the refining business to maximize the returns not to siphon off values. So I just used a straight connection to return all of the condensate to the reaction.
Again, not trying to pry, but I am a nerd and I do notice stuff!
PeterM
Well-known member
Correct, a hood is not needed, as that thing would burn up valuable real estate. But the point I'm making it works and it's stealth.
PeterM
Well-known member
Yeah, I bought and read Gajda's book, kind of worthless to me. No, I wasn't condensing nor distilling off NOX. But, you are correct the vapors from the NOX will carry values over, good observation.
Fortunately I never bought Gajda's book, I found it in an assayers dumpster in NYC. Apparently he found it useless too.
To be clear I wasn't dumpster diving, I went to get some old assay records and he had just thrown them out. He went with me and we found them in the dumpster. I saw the book and he said "worthless, take it and read it, you'll see".
I am planning to do the same thing and just found this on aliexpress (https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006561883795.html)
I am not sure how it would go. But it does follow the correct ideas and is a one piece inclusion. Just add a decent water pump and recycle the water.
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get the 1" size, it will give you more CFM.
