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Registered Member #8
Joined: Thu Feb 02 2006, 04:34AM
Location: Harlowton, MT, United States
Posts: 214
Minor updates last weekend: I worked on some of the anode support stuff, upper part of the cell, and natural gas burner. I got more done over the weekend than I did during the entirety of spring break, how very odd.
Registered Member #65
Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 06:43AM
Location:
Posts: 1155
I am not sure if there is really any need for some complex parts -- Do you really need constant output?
Needle valves are not that great sometimes (I hope you were not planning to weld your own pressurized hopper). Have you considered a hopper tank with ball valves at each end of a large section of pipe to act as a gravity feeder, air lock, and filling spout? It also allows you to preheat the material prior to temperature shocking the crucible.
Speaking of air locks, perhaps making the casting inside the same set-up in a fixed batch size would remove the need for constant metering.
Registered Member #8
Joined: Thu Feb 02 2006, 04:34AM
Location: Harlowton, MT, United States
Posts: 214
Pressurized hopper? The entire system is at approximately 1atm, except for the HVAC. The needle valves are for the HVAC part, for the cascade expansion valves. The rest is simply filled with argon at 1atm on the cathode side, and chlorine at the anode side. This should be clear from the diagrams, and the argon escapes through a valve as the sodium hopper fills up. Chlorine will condense into a proper tank to be used for the next step. The FeCl3 reactor where that is used involves an exothermic reaction in which a gas and solid yields only a solid, therefore a net pressure decrease. The large volume of the reactor, plus a check/relief valve, will assure no large pressure spikes due to the exothermic reaction. In it, chlorine from the tank is injected over a crucible of hot iron turnings, which can be refilled from the cone-shaped hopper above, by raising the chlorine inlet pipe. The FeCl3 reactor will be evacuated entirely before chlorine is fed in. Perfect seals are not required for any part of the system, except for the very tank in which liquid chlorine will be stored at some 100psi at room temperature.
Registered Member #8
Joined: Thu Feb 02 2006, 04:34AM
Location: Harlowton, MT, United States
Posts: 214
Project update: I completed the anode and support hardware, and the burner for the KCl reactor/still. I would have gotten some done on the FeCl3 reactor too but I managed to accidently step on my welding helmet yesterday and destroy it. So that stuff will be delayed until I can get a new one. Anyway since I'm home for the summer now it should really start coming together. As soon as my needle valves arrive I can finish up the HVAC part too, I am most anxious for that. See updates in the main post.
Registered Member #8
Joined: Thu Feb 02 2006, 04:34AM
Location: Harlowton, MT, United States
Posts: 214
Just wanted to let you guys know how it's coming. The ceramics for the cell top are cut out and I spent today welding on the casting trays and working on the cascade.
Registered Member #1568
Joined: Thu Jun 26 2008, 02:03PM
Location:
Posts: 1
curious what are you going to use the sodium for?
I'm building Down's cells too.
Did you know you can get rid of your chlorine by bubbling it into water, and they allowing light to catalyze it's conversion to HCl
Then you can take the NaOH you make with the dregs from your cell (by reacting it with water) and neutralize the HCl, so you don't wind up having to store all that chlorine or release it into the atmosphere. There are several methods of reacting sodium with water safely
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Downs Cell Project and Related Processes
So that stuff will be delayed until I can get a new one. Anyway since I'm home for the summer now it should really start coming together. As soon as my needle valves arrive I can finish up the HVAC part too, I am most anxious for that. See updates in the main post.
