how to build an acid resistant hood & scrubber _hood_

[jimdoc]

Thats the best way to start. Many hobbies turn into a career.
Nothing better than earning money with your hobby. You can
always expand easily if warranted.
Jim

 

[4metals]

Frank

If you build the hood and scrubber arrangement as described in this post and install it in the 10 x 20 assay / refining lab described in the post under the assaying section you should be able to easily refine in excess of 1 kilo per day. If it is your goal to compete with JM or Mettalor you're up against some pretty stiff competition and they have large sums of money behind them to do it in the most cost effective manner. Both use a Miller chlorine pre refining process followed by electrolytic cells to produce 99.99 gold. They also quote prices of about 1/2 % in quantity. At those prices I'd save up a weeks worth of kilo's of scrap, melt and assay it and take it in and rep it. But then it's not a hobby it's business.

 

[Lou]

@qst,

Security is a big thing. It is very hard to establish an operation without having adequately secured the refinery. Better security = better insurance rates = less money out the door. Most insurers have their own ideas as to what type of security is adequate, and many have their own brands of safes, camera systems, etc. that they recommend.

 

[4metals]

Depending on how much metal you have to insure the security systems can get quite intricate. Like 2 alarm systems, one for the vault, one for the premises, and 2 different security companies who both respond to an alarm so neither security firm is there alone. Then there's video surveillance and 7 day recording, a man trap, and armed guards for deliveries. Metal detectors for scanning both visitors and employees. It can add up to quite a bit of overhead, and drive down your profits.

I started out in a small refinery with a good small safe, a perimeter alarm, and a safe deposit box at the bank for my inventory. It can only grow from there.

 

[PreciousMexpert]

I have heard people talking about the Miller Chlorination Process
How much money would it take to establish something like this
Also who would you ask for consultation
The knowledge for AR system is here in this forum but for the Miller Process how would you go about starting it
Thanks

 

[Lou]

Miller chlorine process requires liquefied chlorine, a compatible delivery system (so proper hose), a clay or quartz ''sparging'' tube for delivery into the melt. If you're looking to do it safely and in an EPA-compliant manner, you will need a fume management and containment setup, and of course a baghouse/filter setup to deal with the colloidal particles produced (mostly AgCl). Not cheap.

You have to consider a few things when doing this process: 1.) you have to have a significant pressure of chlorine to overcome the density of the gold which means your delivery system must be able to handle it and not crack (which would be a scary situation with 40 psi chlorine), 2.) you need a way to gas the melt AND simultaneously remove the slag (CuCl, AgCl, PbCl2) in an efficient manner.

Assuming you purify the gold to say, 99.2% or so Au, then you need to cast anodes, obtain an HAuCl4 electrolyte and a big fat Ti cathode along with a windshield scraper to knock off the sponge which plates out.

We could go on and on. Really, it's a bother to do and unless you're dealing in quantities of hundreds of ounces, it's easier to melt, inquart, shot, part, rinse, dissolve, precipitate, assay and repeat if necessary.

 

[4metals]

And that's hundreds of ounces a day! That rules out all but the largest refiners.

 

[PreciousMexpert]

if i was to rent a place in an building like this, yes it is the empire state building
i am not going to rent a place there but i am just using the picture as an example
lets say i start refining and nobody knows
i build a scrubber like you guys are talking about over here
will the neighbors get the smell of the refining and will a be in a jam

if i add some kind of a filter to the blower will that help

 

[4metals]

I designed a place in downtown Manhattan to digest 750 ounce of karat gold per day. We never had complaints about fumes coming off the scrubber, noise from the blower, yes, fumes never.

The EPA uses a ballpark figure of 80% efficiency for caustic scrubbers so never put your stack under anyones open windows but a well placed stack which see's a good quantity of open air should be fine.

 

[PreciousMexpert]

4metals thanks for your help
how much do yo charge for consultation and designing a system

 

[4metals]

Mexpert

I'll send you a PM

 

[PreciousMexpert]

What happens when there is a power failure or there is a problem with the building water system.

 

[PreciousMexpert]

Is there something you pour over the reaction to stop it

 

[4metals]

Either pull out the metal and rinse it or ice it down. Better yet, start slow, never over add your acids, and learn your material. Then put the ice around a cold brew! :lol:

 

[markqf1]

I've been reading this thread and the thought of compressed air entered my mind.
How useful could compressed air be to fume control?

Mark

 

[qst42know]

It would require a large air compressor but you could create a significant draft blowing an air nozzle up a stack pipe. It's not very efficient energy wise because of the cfm it would require but they make packing peanut vacuums for receiving departments with the same sort of rig. Pneumatic fume hood of a sort.

 

[markqf1]

I was looking more at augmentation.
A slipstream can help matters!

Mark

 

[qst42know]

If you think of it this way. A 1/2 hp blower would move a much larger volume of air than a 1/2 hp compressor. You need volume not pressure.

 

[Platdigger]

And volocity as well, if we are talking about veturi effect.

 

[LaurenceOs]

4metals! Fantastic thread!

I understand fully but where can i get corrosion resistant blowers and the caustic pump/spray nozzle.

While you're at it what materials are going to be unaffected by the fumes?

Laurence