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Pilgrim2850

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 17, 2008
Messages
48
Location
southeastern Pa
Hi guys,

I've seen in past posts people wanting to know where to get sulfuric acid. I just ran across this site which has it. Grainger.com
Hope this helps someone.

larry
 
I have always bought mine from auto parts stores and saved delivery charges. I will say that fewer stock it as we move to maintenance free batteries.

Although I do not get mine from them I hear from around the US that NAPPA usually stocks it.
 
Hiya,
I know this is an older topic but I thought I'd add I'm in north texas and we have O'Rielly auto parts. Where I get my Battery acid. It's around 25 dollars for 5 gallons. The other auto stores like Auto zone and advance auto sell a 32 oz bottle for around 7 dollars.
 
only if battery is good,and charged, otherwise most of sulfuric will be lead sulfate, can check specific gravity of cell to see concentration of sulfuric acid.
 
I just got through boiling down about a gallon of battery acid on a hotplate in a coffee pot. When I started out, the fresh battery acid was water clear. As it boiled down, at about 50% of the original volume, it started to get a bit of a yellow/amber color. At 40%, it was a medium amber color. When the temperature began to really climb (at about 35% of the original volume), the concentrate was quite a dark amber color.

Is this normal, or did I somehow contaminate the acid as I was cooking it down?

I did wash the coffee pot thoroughly before starting. I was working outside, and has the coffee pot uncovered while cooking it.
 
I can address this only by the experience I've had in buying sulfuric.

I used to buy it, concentrated, from a chemical supply house. I don't recall the concentration, but the sulfuric I purchased had a strange tint of color as well. I would describe that which I purchased as a pinkish/yellow color. It could well be that some color is normal, but I hesitate to say it is. I expect that, regardless of what you're seeing, it isn't likely to be troublesome for your application.

I did not run a stripping cell-----my use was for pickling and for insuring there was no lead in my final product.

Harold
 
Try freezing the battery acid before you concentrate it . Most of the metals will crystalize out at lower temps.
 
I don't know the purity of the H2SO4 used to make battery acid but I would guess it's made from technical grade. Most technical grade H2SO4 contains traces of iron. It is commonly made from iron sulfide (pyrite), iron sulfate, or waste H2SO4 used in iron pickling operations, according to the literature. It wouldn't take much iron to make it amber when concentrated. If that's what it is, these traces of iron won't cause any problems in the cell.
 
Thanks for the replies! I was actually concentrating the H2SO4 for making poor man's Nitric to process some inquarted gold. I assume that this should be OK for that also... :roll:

Russ
 
Russmith007 said:
Thanks for the replies! I was actually concentrating the H2SO4 for making poor man's Nitric to process some inquarted gold. I assume that this should be OK for that also...
Click to expand...
I'm not convinced that would work well, although I am also not a chemist. Seems to me that you'd have greater difficulty recovering any silver that is present. Parting is generally accomplished with dilute nitric acid. Maybe Chris or Lou can shed some light on the idea.

Harold
 
Hi Everyone,

Does anyone know where you can buy small quanities of Sulfuric Acid in the UK?

The USA sounds like a chemical buyers dream.

Thanks for your help in advance.
 
I don't know for certain about the UK but motorcycle batteries are often shipped and stored dry to lower shipping costs and extend their shelf life. Around here they aren't filled until purchased.
 
amizell said:
Hiya,
I know this is an older topic but I thought I'd add I'm in north texas and we have O'Rielly auto parts. Where I get my Battery acid. It's around 25 dollars for 5 gallons. The other auto stores like Auto zone and advance auto sell a 32 oz bottle for around 7 dollars.
Click to expand...

I purchased batteryacid from O'Rielly auto parts a few weeks ago (1.5gal for $12). I've made several attempts to concentrate it and the best density I get is 1.64g/ml. Once at about 35% of it's original volume, it becomes an amber color.

It appears the majority of H2O is driven off and the result pours almost like an oil. The density appears to drop if I let it fume for various amounts of time. Testing it against sugar eacts many times slower than a drain opener like Floweasy or Liquid Fire.

At this point, I'm suspicious of the product. I discovered O'rielly's acid comes from East Penn Manufacturing. Something in the MSDS caught my eye: "mineral acid." A few other battery-related items from East Penn mention mineral oil with H2SO4. Maybe that's my issue with concentrating this acid... and maybe that's why almost everyone seems to get their dilute H2SO4 from NAPA. :)
 
I think they just call H2SO4 mineral acid, it has no relation to mineral oil.
the battery acid would need to be more pure than drain cleaners which may have buffers or additives, as battery acid is used in electrolisis. and batterys lead must move back and forth in cell, contaminates would quickly ruin a cell, or battery, GSP stated maybe some Iron as a contaminate, there maybe some I am not sure, but the coal burning and pyrite process would make SO2 and SO3 gas which bubbled into water and sulfuric would make Oleum then diluted to make more sulfuric acid, my guess the more pure product would be sold as battery acid and more contaminated sold as drain cleaners.
 
I buy my concentrated 97 percent sulfuric and 70 percent nitric acid from a company that supplies chemicals to the greenhouse industry. The nitric is cheap but there is a hefty deposit on the SS drum.

Regards
Rusty
 

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