Hi,

Electrowinning is not custom synthesis?  Make pretty 
rocks out sludge (malachite)?  People spend a lot of money to dig up malachite to make 
copper.  Why reverse the process?  Waste treatement is not a profit 
center for most shops and I doubt that an additional cost burden will 
be look upon favorably by the owners.  Hauling salts is more 
expensive that hauling metal.  The trade off is what is the cost of 
generating the metal vs the salt vs the ooh ahs from the local 
regulators as they look at your "clean" recycling system.  The show 
is worth a few buck but I don't think you're going to find the cost 
of generating a complex salt cheaper that what is being done now.  In 
fact, unless the mines close, you're not going to get any cost 
benefit by changing what everyone is doing now.  I guarantee you, the 
excess costs have been pretty much rung out of waste treatement.  

I doubt if you're going to get someone to fund this for you.  Now, if 
you get a no maintanence  electroless electrowinning system, now that 
would be something that you could sell!  

Bob Mesick
Remco Engineering
www.remco.com/home.htm



You wrote:

Date: Sat, 15 Feb 1997 17:51:52 -0500
From: [log in to unmask]
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: FAB / Waste Reuse
Message-Id: <[log in to unmask]>
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII
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Are there any outfits out there who have engineered their waste
streams to produce salable copper salts?

I am not referring to electrowinning or sludge reclamation but full
scale custom synthesis to minimize wasted copper. Take the reclamation
of copper sufate, synthesis of malachite, or other copper salts with
different gegenions.

Are there any sources of funding to initiate such a project?  Does
anyone see any potential buyers? One could view one board shop as a
remote source for material; but the collective of shops could be a
major source.

Thank you,
One Overactive, Curious Chemist

[log in to unmask] 

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