Bill: Cheap, Cheap, my wife, few years back wanted to do a small "cheap addition" maybe $25,000, by the time the thing was finished and I added up the bills, it was $125,000 of "Cheap" addition.
Nothiong is really cheap, particularly durable capital equipment for severe chemical environments.
By the way, you know of a stainless steel that will stand up to a concoction that is capable of disolving gold and platinum? None of the 300 or 400 series will do, and you can add chromium and moly till nauseum, if the acid can disolve gold, it will disolve the stainless. Or does the process attack the quartz grains and releases the native metal. If it is dissolution, you will need a very special stainless steel, even cobalt based superalloys (and I developped a number of these)do not stand a chance in HCl with a small "additive" that will persuade gold and platinum into solution. If it does that, it will leach out the protective chromium oxide on the stainless and the iron will disolve like salt in water.
Remember, the gold and platinum stay in solution just one hopur, but this new stailess steel you just found will need to be there for few years or at least few months, and continuosly. Furthermore, if you are going to inject your steam, be sure that your steam lines are madfe of the same secret material since they will be exposed to back fumes, you'd better coat them with teflon (ouch the cost) or better yet, use THV, at least you can solution coat it without sintering like teflon.
You see, Bill, this is one of my main problems, inconsitencies, you must be getting your info from a good source, but the different elements do not jive together,.
Zeev |
