New with a few safety questions

[kreinhardt]

Absolute beginner here. My background is as a hobbyist jeweler so I have been extremely slow and careful in my education on process and safety for refining. I've been following the forum for a few years, have read Hoke at least 3 times and have watched Sreetips videos as well as read his process posts (kadriver) here. I have gotten to the point where I feel that I understand the process for recovering and refining karat gold as well as one can without ever having done it. However, I am reluctant to begin my first attempt for the following reasons.

1) I plan on doing all of my work outside which is always recommended if one doesn't have a fume hood. I plan on processing a few oz./month of karat gold and occasionally gold filled material and maybe running a small silver cell. Would it be a good idea to build a fume hood for my outdoor work anyway?

2) Even though I'm not doing much in terms of reactions, I'm not too keen on putting nasty fumes into the air around my house for a number of reasons. Would it be a good idea to build a small simple scrubber in addition to a hood? Is it possible to use a scrubber without a hood or will too much of the fumes produced escape without a proper enclosure?

 

[FrugalRefiner]

Yes, and yes.

On the scrubber question, you can capture and scrub most of the fumes with a "closed system" scrubber. Note, that doesn't mean a sealed system that builds up pressure, but a "reactor" like an erlenmeyer or boiling flask attached to a series of scrubber bottles that will scrub most of the fumes before the hood evacuates the much smaller amount that escapes.

Dave

 

[kreinhardt]

Thanks for the quick reply. I recall a photo from an earlier thread on scrubbers of 3 filtering flasks in series dumping into a beaker filled with clear liquid (water?) at the end. I assume this is the type of system you are referring to. I assume I need an eductor in this small of a setup to pull fumes, but it wasn't clear from what I read that it was necessary.

 

[Yggdrasil]

Thanks for the quick reply. I recall a photo from an earlier thread on scrubbers of 3 filtering flasks in series dumping into a beaker filled with clear liquid (water?) at the end. I assume this is the type of system you are referring to. I assume I need an eductor in this small of a setup to pull fumes, but it wasn't clear from what I read that it was necessary.

Yes, you need a vacuum and an eductor is the cheapest way for that vacuum.

 

[Sunnyket]

Hello , I've one question regarding my fume scrubber.
It is three tower scrubber Made of PP material i use it for silver refining process (that is nitric).
In scrubber i use Caustic soda to neutralize fumes.

Can i use it for other chemicals process like HCL boil or AR process? It is fine for scrubber? Or it will damage using different acids process?

 

[eaglekeeper]

Do you have pictures of your scrubber, that would make it easier for commenting on it.

 

[Sunnyket]

Do you have pictures of your scrubber, that would make it easier for commenting on it.

Height 7ft

 

[Sunnyket]

Do you have pictures of your scrubber, that would make it easier for commenting on it.

Yes

 

[eaglekeeper]

Sorry, I've never used polypropylene so I'm not sure. Others here may have more experience with.

Nice setup though...

 

[Sunnyket]

Sorry, I've never used polypropylene so I'm not sure. Others here may have more experience with.

Nice setup though...

Thanks,
I didn't find any threads regarding this.

 

[Jell00]

Height 7ft

How does this work, how can I build one

 

[Sunnyket]

How does this work, how can I build one

Hello jell
I bought it from local.
It works great.
As you can see in the above image the bottom horizontal round pipe contains water and caustic soda (10kg) (keep water below 50% capacity of that pipe) alkali pump is attached to that horizontal round pipe to circulate that water into the upper vertical three towers.
Three vertical towers filled with 75% space with Polypropylene filler and on the top of tower showers are connected(showering with the help of an alkali pump).
The blower is attached to the Tower which is the last one it helps to pull and throw air from the scrubber(it also valve to control air).
The initial acid inlet is connected to the first vertical tower.
Acid vapour goes through 1, 2 and 3 towers respectively and eliminates 99% gas.
If work is in large amount then you need a chiller also to cool down vapours before scrubber.
Check out the link for more info
https://www.machengineering.com/how-wet-scrubbers-work-to-remove-air-pollution/
Edited for spelling mistake #

 

[Acidrain]

Hello jell
I bought it from local.
It works great.
As you can see in the above image the bottom horizontal round pipe contains water and caustic soda (10kg) (keep water below 50% capacity of that pipe) alkali pump is attached to that horizontal round pipe to circulate that water into the upper vertical three towers.
Three vertical towers filled with 75% space with Polypropylene filler and on the top of tower showers are connected(showering with the help of an alkali pump).
The blower is attached to the Tower which is the last one it helps to pull and throw air from the scrubber(it also valve to control air).
The initial acid inlet is connected to the first vertical tower.
Acid vapour goes through 1, 2 and 3 towers respectively and eliminates 99% gas.
If work is in large amount then you need a chiller also to cool down vapours before scrubber.
Check out the link for more info
https://www.machengineering.com/how-wet-scrubbers-work-to-remove-air-pollution/
Edited for spelling mistake #

Thanks for the link, that's a good read