Is the filtration problem amenable to vacuum filtration or small filter press?
First of all - you NEVER want to crush ceramic to a fine powder if you intend to leach the fine powder as I have already explained the fine ceramic becomes an ultra fine "clay" like mud which is next to impossible (if not impossible to wash/filter out all of the leach solution --- which means you loose values because values that are dissolved in the solution remain tied up in the ceramic mud that is impossible to get washed/filtered out of that mud
And NO - trying to wash/filter that mud with vacuum or pressure WILL NOT help & that is because putting it under vacuum or pressure only causes the "clay" like mud to "pack" so tight it will completely shut down the ability of the solution to go through the clay mud --- it makes filtering/washing even more difficult then trying to gravity filter - which is it self next to impossible
If you have already crushed/ground the ceramic to "fine" powder & then leached it the ONLY way to really effectively wash/filter the solution out of the "clay" like mud is to add a HUGE amount of "filtering aid" to the clay like mud
Filtering aid is when you mix something of larger particle size in with the "fine" powder (&/or mud) so that what you are trying to filter/wash becomes more porous allowing the solution & wash water to pass through what you are trying the filter/wash --- & the filter aid needs to be acid resistant
Something like silica sand that is around 40 mesh "& larger" in particle size
In other words sand that has had everything "smaller" then 40 mesh washed out of the sand
The filter aid sand should be made up of particle size no smaller then 40 mesh & no larger then 20 mesh (20 mesh is "about" the size of window screen)
You want MORE 40 mesh size particles in your filter aid then 40 mesh particle size because if the filter aid is to course the fine & ultra fine particle will still go through the filter aid particles defeating the purpose of filtering out the fine & ultra fine particles
You then want to mix VERY WELL - LOTS of the filter aid in with your fine/ultra fine mud - like 5 - 6 times filter aid to fine/ultra fine
In other words - you want to mix the filter aid into the mud
along with your leach solution
Once you have the solution/mud/filter aid all mixed up you can run that through an actual filtering set up (& yes here you can now use vacuum or pressure)
Setting up the actual filter - start with regular filter paper at the bottom - then a courser filter on top of that - I use these ---------
https://www.fleetfarm.com/detail/mi...1456?msockid=07f270b150b660d830286472519b61b7
Then on top of that you put an inch or 2 of regular fiber glass house insulation (depending on the amount of solution/mud/filter aid you will be filtering) If you filter with vacuum or pressure the insulation will mash down to 1/4 inch to 1/2 inch
Then on top of the fiber glass insulation you want to put another inch or two of just the filter aid sand
This will speed up the filtering/washing of fine/ultra fine ceramic mud BY A LOT & as well filter out the VAST majority of the fine/ultra fine mud
BUT - you do NOT need to go through this nightmare in the first place because you do NOT need to crush/grind ceramic CPUs &/or ceramic IC chips to leach the gold out of then
ALL you have to do to leach the gold out of CPUs is to break them enough so that the leach solution (acid) can get to the cavity in the CPU to dissolve the gold bond wires &/or any gold braze under the silicon chip
If they are CPUs with no cavity (no lid) they can go direct to AR without needing to break them - & like wise you do NOT need to break ceramic IC chips - they can go direct to AR as long as the lid on the ICs are metal lids
Example; - in the picture is a little over 2 kilos of ceramic IC chips - they went direct to AR without breaking them
52.8 grams of gold was recovered
Kurt