Is calsium Hydroxide acceptable in place of Sodium Hydroxide?

[Ragnor]

I live in a small community, the nearest town is 30 miles away and it's only 30,000 people. This area was also the meth capitol of the U.S. back in the Clinton admin. So obtaining chemicals in my area is very difficult and any requests are met with deep suspicion.

I was unable to locate any sodium hydroxide on my last trip to town. The lady at the farm store talked me into a bag of calcium hydroxide since I was not in the mood to argue the point. I can always use it in the field to raise the ph.

I see that the byproducts are calcium nitrate and calcium chloride. Those are both soluble and could come in handy for other projects. So is it an acceptable substitute to precipitate metals? Ive done many searches and failed to find a satisfactory answer.

 

[g_axelsson]

The problem I see with calcium hydroxide is that it isn't that soluble in water, less than 2g per liter.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calcium_hydroxide

It might work slowly, but I wouldn't bet on it.

In Sweden sodium hydroxide is sold as drain cleaner or as paint remover. It might also go under the name lye or caustic soda. Check the contents on such products too.

You can buy it online too, on ebay or dudadiesel for example.

Göran

 

[rickbb]

You can get it as a drain cleaner in the big box home stores. (I get mine at Lowes.) Just read the labels well, there are 2 versions. One is 100% sodium hydroxide the other contains bits of aluminum. Same brand and the containers look the same so looking closely at the label is required.

 

[galenrog]

Where are you that you can not find sodium hydroxide?

 

[Ragnor]

I am in Lewis County, Washington. I checked the home depot and the walmart both. Neither had powdered lye.
Most of the chemicals they sell on the shelves here do not even list the actual ingredients. It's ridiculous.

 

[Topher_osAUrus]

Lowe's and/or Ace hardware has many kinds of drain cleaner. The local one here has 2 different types of lye, and 2 types of sulfuric acid as well.

Edit to add:

They also have muriatic acid, copperas (ferrous sulfate), bonide stump remover (sodium metabisulfite), nitrate of soda (sodium nitrate), hi-yield stump remover (potassium nitrate), and sulfamic acid to denox your solution.

Literally everything a budding refiner needs to get well on his way, minus the information to safely use the stuff. That, you can get here.