bemate
Well-known member
- Joined
- Sep 23, 2016
- Messages
- 72
As I've written in another topic, I have a small batch of AP used to recover foils from some pins that had solder on them. While the pins and solder dissolved easily enough and left me with a filter full of foils and some other junk, I have now the used AP with lots of dissolved Copper, Lead, Tin, Nickel and probably some Beryllium as far as I can gather from the various sources on the forum.
My plan for now is to use this dirty AP-solution to familiarize myself with waste treatment on a small scale, and the first bit is to just let the solution sit with and excess of Copper to cement out any PM's; my humble start of a Stock Pot.
So, the next step would be to raise the pH slightly and drop the Copper with Iron, again not a complicated process, but I would, however, very much like to get my lead out of the waste stream at this point, rendering my cemented Copper powder free of Lead at least.
I have taken a small amount of the AP after letting it sit with Copper for a few days and added Ammonium Sulphate, getting a white precipitate that to the best of my knowledge is Lead Sulphate. I was thinking of now filtering the solution to get the PbSO4 in a filter that can be disposed of properly, but the question is if this is worth the effort in terms of actually getting rid of the Lead?
I realize this complicates my waste treatment somewhat by adding time spent, chemicals and filters, but I have no problem going the extra mile to remove the Lead from my waste stream at this point, plus it should leave me with a cemented Copper free of Lead at least, if not free of Sn/Ni. The Beryllium should stay in solution as long as I'm below pH 5 or so.
Being interested in the chemistry-aspect of this, I might take the cemented (hopefully Lead free) Copper powder and either add it to my stock pot directly, tinker with it to try and purify it, just for the sake of learning, or maybe not drop the Copper at all, keeping it as a dirty AP-solution to use on plated stuff containing Fe, like pins and such from my depopulated cards. That would, on the other hand, still be keeping the Beryllium around in solution, which is also another metal I'd like to be rid of.
Disposing of a few liters of solution containg small amounts of Beryllium is not a problem, we have government funded return stations for hazardous waste that take small amounts for free, but I see no reason to throw away perfectly good Copper by discarding my spent AP directly after removal from the Stock Pot.
With this in mind, I think the most likely solution is to remove the Lead as proposed above, raise the pH slightly and add Fe-scrap to recover my Copper, shipping the Beryllium to the professionals to save myself the potential hazards of trying to deal with it myself while I'm still learning the tricks of the trade.
Any thoughts on this? Is this an effective way to remove the Lead at this point in the process?
My plan for now is to use this dirty AP-solution to familiarize myself with waste treatment on a small scale, and the first bit is to just let the solution sit with and excess of Copper to cement out any PM's; my humble start of a Stock Pot.
So, the next step would be to raise the pH slightly and drop the Copper with Iron, again not a complicated process, but I would, however, very much like to get my lead out of the waste stream at this point, rendering my cemented Copper powder free of Lead at least.
I have taken a small amount of the AP after letting it sit with Copper for a few days and added Ammonium Sulphate, getting a white precipitate that to the best of my knowledge is Lead Sulphate. I was thinking of now filtering the solution to get the PbSO4 in a filter that can be disposed of properly, but the question is if this is worth the effort in terms of actually getting rid of the Lead?
I realize this complicates my waste treatment somewhat by adding time spent, chemicals and filters, but I have no problem going the extra mile to remove the Lead from my waste stream at this point, plus it should leave me with a cemented Copper free of Lead at least, if not free of Sn/Ni. The Beryllium should stay in solution as long as I'm below pH 5 or so.
Being interested in the chemistry-aspect of this, I might take the cemented (hopefully Lead free) Copper powder and either add it to my stock pot directly, tinker with it to try and purify it, just for the sake of learning, or maybe not drop the Copper at all, keeping it as a dirty AP-solution to use on plated stuff containing Fe, like pins and such from my depopulated cards. That would, on the other hand, still be keeping the Beryllium around in solution, which is also another metal I'd like to be rid of.
Disposing of a few liters of solution containg small amounts of Beryllium is not a problem, we have government funded return stations for hazardous waste that take small amounts for free, but I see no reason to throw away perfectly good Copper by discarding my spent AP directly after removal from the Stock Pot.
With this in mind, I think the most likely solution is to remove the Lead as proposed above, raise the pH slightly and add Fe-scrap to recover my Copper, shipping the Beryllium to the professionals to save myself the potential hazards of trying to deal with it myself while I'm still learning the tricks of the trade.
Any thoughts on this? Is this an effective way to remove the Lead at this point in the process?
