If I have Pb in solution (can be acetate or nitrate) how do I reduce it to Pb metal?

[Alondro]

Are you a lead refiner? Seriously, if you are, most refiners (even the ones who don't admit it) discard their used cupels in the trash. Truth is they are hazardous waste because they do fail TCLP testing. (which the only client who ever wanted to discard them properly tested for at my suggestion) But they average 40% by weight lead. I could get you lots of samples!!!!!

The easy trick to refining cupels is simple carbon reduction. Crush the cupels, mix with smashed charcoal in roughly equal volume, then put in a closed-up clay pot in the furnace and let it burn for a while. The lead will reduce out in metallic form.

That's one reason why I'm building a larger brick furnace. I can use wood and old railway coal; which I get from an old abandoned railway near me has TONS of PA anthracite coal bit lying around, which has been washed clean for nearly 100 years. It burns smokeless with a bright blue-white flame.

I can take care of all my waste at almost no cost. Solutions full of toxic salts can be evaporated down to crystals or hard cake forms (depending on the salts present). I can even glass them if I can find a cast iron pot to melt the salts into the plentiful quartz sand in my area, and the mounds of potash left over from burning wood in the wood stove we're installing at home. The vitrified salts will be inert, chemically bound in the glass.

 

[offtrailhiker]

I would gladly accept the material. It's the logistics of an economical method to get them that's the stickler. Even assuming a best case: 100% of the 40% Pb content with negligible recovery cost, accumulating enough to see $0.98/lb, I'd have to get the material at $0.40/lb delivered to break even. And of course everything rarely goes exactly right.

 

[offtrailhiker]

The easy trick to refining cupels is simple carbon reduction. Crush the cupels, mix with smashed charcoal in roughly equal volume, then put in a closed-up clay pot in the furnace and let it burn for a while. The lead will reduce out in metallic form.

That's one reason why I'm building a larger brick furnace. I can use wood and old railway coal; which I get from an old abandoned railway near me has TONS of PA anthracite coal bit lying around, which has been washed clean for nearly 100 years. It burns smokeless with a bright blue-white flame.

I can take care of all my waste at almost no cost. Solutions full of toxic salts can be evaporated down to crystals or hard cake forms (depending on the salts present). I can even glass them if I can find a cast iron pot to melt the salts into the plentiful quartz sand in my area, and the mounds of potash left over from burning wood in the wood stove we're installing at home. The vitrified salts will be inert, chemically bound in the glass.

To be fair, I think you're in a better position, both physically and structurally, to accept the spent cupels.

 

[Darkthirty]

I know. I should be seeing $980/ton by going to a scrap yard 60 miles away, and twice that if I advertise to guys that cast their own sinkers and bullets. Note though my scheme to extract Pb from CRTs is far from production. The only Pb I'm handling now is wheel weights and solder. More Pb means a better price. I don't have that yet. Maybe my quoting a ton price was misleading when I'm only currently handling pounds, and I apologize for that, but IDK how much weight 4metals is referring to.

Should be closer to .60 LB /1200 a ton. 1K is 2.2 LBS. Scrapyards will offer low price if there's no competition. Pure Pb ingot Lee/Lyman on amazon is $13.59 Lb shipped.

 

[otto]

i would consider electrowinning the Pb from your aqueous solution of Pb2+. if you need more details i can elaborate. it would be relatively cheap, clean and of high purity. if you are looking for very high purity you could drop out the Pb as the iodide then recrystallise from boiling water and treat with nitric acid, then set up your electrolysis

 

[offtrailhiker]

i would consider electrowinning the Pb from your aqueous solution of Pb2+. if you need more details i can elaborate. it would be relatively cheap, clean and of high purity. if you are looking for very high purity you could drop out the Pb as the iodide then recrystallise from boiling water and treat with nitric acid, then set up your electrolysis

Thank you for your offer. As it is, after posting here over a year ago and doing my own research, I found no economical and environmentally friendly solution for recovering Pb from CRT tubes, and since they were taking up valuable space I paid the local transfer station to dispose of most of them. I kept a few, but the project will remain back burner at best.

 

[Proffshuggarn]

As a former professional authorized rock blaster, I had a close relationship with manufacturers of explosives and various igniters of all kinds.
This included frequent visits to the factories where I gained insight and knowledge about different matrices and "mixtures", including the very friction/impact sensitive primary explosives.
-What do I mean by this?
-Well, I want to raise a warning finger here in all good intentions, without "revealing" too much.

-If you are a beginner without sufficient knowledge of the subject, lead and nitrates in combination with certain/a few other components that I will not name here, are completely life-threatening, believe me.

I expect to receive criticism for this post, but I can handle it. I just want to protect everyone's health and safety.

-I know that the chemistry professionals here understand what I mean.
/Dennis

 

[otto]

Thank you for your offer. As it is, after posting here over a year ago and doing my own research, I found no economical and environmentally friendly solution for recovering Pb from CRT tubes, and since they were taking up valuable space I paid the local transfer station to dispose of most of them. I kept a few, but the project will remain back burner at best.

i actually find Pb(NO3)2 a useful chem and it is easy to crystallize with good purity. nice white glassy crystals. easy to keep dry and does not oxidise like Pb. i would not have even considered Pb in CRTs since there are many other more interesting metals you can extract vis Y and Eu. the Eu is hard to extract as a metal, but easy as an oxalate or similar. couple of rare earths to add to the collection

safety note: Pb(NO3)2 is very toxic (acute - through the skin, inhalation, etc)

 

[offtrailhiker]

As a former professional authorized rock blaster, I had a close relationship with manufacturers of explosives and various igniters of all kinds.
This included frequent visits to the factories where I gained insight and knowledge about different matrices and "mixtures", including the very friction/impact sensitive primary explosives.
-What do I mean by this?
-Well, I want to raise a warning finger here in all good intentions, without "revealing" too much.

-If you are a beginner without sufficient knowledge of the subject, lead and nitrates in combination with certain/a few other components that I will not name here, are completely life-threatening, believe me.

I expect to receive criticism for this post, but I can handle it. I just want to protect everyone's health and safety.

-I know that the chemistry professionals here understand what I mean.
/Dennis

No criticism here. I know what you're talking about. Thanks for the heads up.