On purifying sulphuric acid

Shop deals on ebay
xelexo
Advertise with us
shop deals on amazon
Gold Refining Forum

Help Support Gold Refining Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
B

Benjaminza

Active member
Joined
Nov 2, 2022
Messages
40
Location
South Africa
Hi guys. So I saw alot of guys use sulpheric acid to drop lead out of solution before dropping gold. My question is do I need to purify it before using.

I am going to use drain cleaner and saw some videos of guys using hydrogen peroxide to purify it( or rather just clear it up.

Is this necessary or can I use it as is?
 
Benjaminza said:
Hi guys. So I saw alot of guys use sulpheric acid to drop lead out of solution before dropping gold. My question is do I need to purify it before using.

I am going to use drain cleaner and saw some videos of guys using hydrogen peroxide to purify it( or rather just clear it up.

Is this necessary or can I use it as is?
Click to expand...
Do not mix Hydrogen Peroxide together with Sulfuric acid, it creates a very nasty and dangerous solution.
Battery acid is plenty good enough and just a few drops/ml will do the job.
 
If you buy Ace Hardware brand, it will work as is just fine. Even Liquid Fire will work good as is for dropping lead. If you want to use Poormans Nitric, go with the Ace stuff. I have used gallons of it with no problems.

Just saw you from South Africa. Try to find an acid that has no coloring to it. The color can act like soap and cause it to foam up on several brands.
 
I have been looking for a while and could only find at my science chemical store. Unfortunately I already used my whole budget for supplies I for this month.

What I do have though is 2 regular bottles of sulpheric acid drain cleaner and some hydrogen peroxide.

Was actually looking for a reliable source of sulfamic acid to denox with as that would change (if I understand correctly) any excess nitric into sulphuric and automatically drop the lead that way.

Unfortunately being in South Africa and with chemicals always having a thousand names I have run out of avenues to pursue.

If you guys have any advice how I can get around or through this I am all ears.

Also if theres any other South Africans here that could maybe give me a shout of a reliable source of sulfamic acid that would be awesome too.

Thanks guys.
 
Does anybody know what the "Buffering" agent is in most drain cleaning sulphuric, sold at the big chain stores? And what, if any, effect it will have in refining?
 
Benjaminza said:
I have been looking for a while and could only find at my science chemical store. Unfortunately I already used my whole budget for supplies I for this month.

What I do have though is 2 regular bottles of sulpheric acid drain cleaner and some hydrogen peroxide.

Was actually looking for a reliable source of sulfamic acid to denox with as that would change (if I understand correctly) any excess nitric into sulphuric and automatically drop the lead that way.

Unfortunately being in South Africa and with chemicals always having a thousand names I have run out of avenues to pursue.

If you guys have any advice how I can get around or through this I am all ears.

Also if theres any other South Africans here that could maybe give me a shout of a reliable source of sulfamic acid that would be awesome too.

Thanks guys.
Click to expand...
How much are you using?
An old car battery do contain
Sulphuric acid and that can be used for this particular application.
If I’m not mistaken.
 
goldshark said:
Does anybody know what the "Buffering" agent is in most drain cleaning sulphuric, sold at the big chain stores? And what, if any, effect it will have in refining?
Click to expand...
We don’t use much Sulphuric acid in refining do we?
Unless you are using a Sulphuric stripping cell that is.

Buffering agents are used to “force” a solution into a specific pH range.
 
I use sulfuric to produce nitric acid in situ, at times, when doing gold filled. It does cause larger amounts of waste than pure nitric though. It also causes silver losses. What it does do for me is lets me do a job without driving 300 miles for nitric.
 
Benjaminza said:
Now this sounds interesting. Please divulge.
Click to expand...
It is nothing we use in refining, not me at least.
If you add buffer to a solution , you have to select the correct one, maybe it is different for different solutions.
How it inflict the other chemicals in refining I do not know, so I try to avoid them.
But for dropping lead from a solution, it is just a minute amount of Sulfuric and the buffer should not matter.
 
Yggdrasil said:
It is nothing we use in refining, not me at least.
If you add buffer to a solution , you have to select the correct one, maybe it is different for different solutions.
How it inflict the other chemicals in refining I do not know, so I try to avoid them.
But for dropping lead from a solution, it is just a minute amount of Sulfuric and the buffer should not matter.
Click to expand...
So if the amount is minute...does it matter then if i use pure or coloured sulpheric acid
 
Benjaminza said:
So if the amount is minute...does it matter then if i use pure or coloured sulpheric acid
Click to expand...
Depending on the purity you aim for.
For the first drop not necessarily, since it will remove all the lead before the first drop.
When you redissolve for the second refine, there is no need for Sulphuric acid since there are no Lead.
 
I do not add BUFFERING to the sulphuric, it comes that way from the big chain stores. I understand it is alright to use, still wondering what the BUFFER is. Knowledge is the key, and I try to find out what is what. If a reaction doesn't give the results estimated, I want to know where it could have a complication, and what from.

Is Sulphuric from an old battery ok, despite the fact it has been sitting in Lead for god only knows how long, plus the fact that some body could have filled it with a lot of non distilled water, maybe high in Calcium, neutralizing the acid to some degree?
 
goldshark said:
I do not add BUFFERING to the sulphuric, it comes that way from the big chain stores. I understand it is alright to use, still wondering what the BUFFER is. Knowledge is the key, and I try to find out what is what. If a reaction doesn't give the results estimated, I want to know where it could have a complication, and what from.

Is Sulphuric from an old battery ok, despite the fact it has been sitting in Lead for god only knows how long, plus the fact that some body could have filled it with a lot of non distilled water, maybe high in Calcium, neutralizing the acid to some degree?
Click to expand...
The buffering substance can probably be “anything”. Depending on company, reason for buffering and so on.
But with the amount used in the pre first drop, maybe 1% of two three drops per liter it should not be worrying.
What it is, one need to talk to the producer.

For battery acid, there will be no Lead af the same reason we use it. And if it has other substances it will have the same considerations as the buffering.
For safe measure it would be wise to measure the pH though.
 
I posted a similar question about knockout drain cleaner, available in the UK. It has a red colour. I did not get any information on what the additives were.
I experimented with the cleaner in a gold stripping cell and making poor man's nitric ,as in Geo's video. The cleaner works in both as the red colour dissappears when the reactions start.
I believe the red colour may be an inibitor to protect metal pipes until the Drain is cleared of organic material.
 
tiggertree said:
I posted a similar question about knockout drain cleaner, available in the UK. It has a red colour. I did not get any information on what the additives were.
I experimented with the cleaner in a gold stripping cell and making poor man's nitric ,as in Geo's video. The cleaner works in both as the red colour dissappears when the reactions start.
I believe the red colour may be an inibitor to protect metal pipes until the Drain is cleared of organic material.
Click to expand...
Did you contact the producer?
 
I could not trace the producer only the distbrutor.
As the Drain cleaner suits my needs I did not pursue it further.
I have also used it to produce fuming nitric by simple distilling of potassium nitrate and the Drain cleaner. Again it clears up soon after the reaction starts.
 
Well, here is some advice Sulfuric acid is illegal in many countries like Europe. It may be hard to get hold of. In Quebec, Nitric acid is restricted but Sulfuric acid 98% cost 65 dollars Can. I consider it quite a potent acid. If you can deal with the drain cleaners with a dye and 93% sulfuric acid you may be able to drop lead out from the gold.

I don't know about the Impurities in the product and if they would interfere and distilling sulfuric acid is EXTREMELY DANGEROUS.

While the drain cleaner has dyes for many applications it could interfere.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top