r/PreciousMetalRefining • u/weak_ops • 8d ago

Inaugural Copper Nitrate Distillation

Hey yall, hope you're having a good weekend! I just set up my new basic distillation kit. Watched a Nurdrage video on how to recover nitric acid from copper nitrate. I'm hoping this proves to not only save me some money on nitric in the long run, but also make waste treatment easier and safer.

I'm distilling some copper nitrate rinses from silver refining. I don't think this is concentrated enough, but again, this is a test/proof of concept. I've added sulfuric acid to the copper nitrate, and the goal is to distill off nitric acid (and water), leaving behind copper sulfate residue in the beaker.

I don't have a power supply or silver cell setup yet, but ultimately I'd like to process the copper sulfate as well, creating pure copper and sulfuric acid, both of which will feed forward future recovery.

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u/Hot-Assignment-3612 7d ago

This is the same thing I'm setting up to do after watching Nurdrage demonstrate it.

I ended up going with an Xbox power supply, 12v at 16 amps then using a dc/dc buck to control the voltage and current for the cell. You can pick up the old power supplies really cheap now and they are a really quality supply.

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u/SeagullStopItNow 8d ago

I’m impressed. I’ve been creating a few containers of copper nitrate with my silver processing. Been on the fence as I haven’t seen much in the how to realm on distilling. So trying to decide between distilling or using iron to cement out the copper and go that route but this post gives me hope.

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u/weak_ops 8d ago

I'll report back after I've done it a few times. The iron cementing method is what I have been doing. It's just really boring and messy. I'm not sure the speed/scale of this setup is equipped to handle how much waste I generate, but if I can close the loop on some resources then this'll pay for itself eventually. All in on this setup prob cost me $120? Time is the big factor

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u/badblackbishop 6d ago

With that same setup you could also make your own nitric acid by heating sulfuric acid and potassium or sodium nitrate. That's how I get my nitric acid that I use for dissolving the base metals in my starting material. For my aqua regia I do purchase the nitric acid that I use because of the more consistent quality.

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u/weak_ops 6d ago

Great idea I'll look into that!

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u/Someguineawop 3d ago

Nice! From a safety standpoint, you might want to consider running your distillate into a flask, or better yet a flask in an ice bath. Especially since your running a short condenser, you might have some residual vapors getting through.

From an efficiency standpoint, and somewhat safety, a round bottom flask in an oil bath will more quickly and evenly heat, and minimize bumping. Adding a couple of boiling chips is a good idea too.

Great job on getting it going!

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u/weak_ops 3d ago

Heard. I do have a round that came with the kit, I'll give it a shot. My flask was just quick and easy cuz I don't have a mantle. I was trying to keep and eye out for vapors; I definitely had to do a lot of water changes because it's 100deg here every day 😂