pickles
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Registered: 18-5-2010
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disposing of chloroform and hydrogen chloride
I am using an indican test kit - the combining of chloroform and hydrogen chloride in equal parts and would like to know if disposing of it down the
drain is dangerous or unacceptable for the waterways.
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Paddywhacker
Hazard to Others
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The hydrogen chloride should be neutralized first, with garden lime or with bicarbonate.
Chloroform and other chlorinated solvents should never be disposed of down the drain. For small quantities I would pour them on to the concrete back
yard and let them evaporate. But more than, say 50 ml I would store it until i could distill it. Disposal of larger quantities is a job for
professional hazchem people. Maybe a local collage will let you use their chlorinated solvents disposal bottle.
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JohnWW
International Hazard
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As for chlorinated or brominated hydrocarbon solvents, I would attempt to recover them, most likely by distillation, after extracting from them any
solute (such as HCl) that is soluble in both them and water by shaking with water in a separating funnel and decanting off. Chlorinated or brominated
hydrocarbon solvents, such as CCl4, CHCl3, CH3CCl3, C2Cl6, CH2Cl2, CH2Br2, C6H5Cl, etc., are not so easy to come by nowadays, in spite of their
valuable uses as solvents and reagents, because of their liver toxicity and the damage that their vapors can do to the ozone layer if released.
Moreover, the ones that are only partly chlorinated, if burned, form highly poisonous phosgene, COCl2.
[Edited on 19-5-10 by JohnWW]
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chemrox
International Hazard
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I'm separating my solvents as much as possible so I can run them in a solvent still and re-use them. You may pour the HCl down the drain after you
make it into NaCl and water as was mentioned already. Please don't evaporate organic solvents. Just using chlorinated solvents sends a small amount
into the atmosphere and they interfere with the ozone layer. Never send organics down the drain. They contribute to drinking water contamination and
we're short of water all over the world.
"When you let the dumbasses vote you end up with populism followed by autocracy and getting back is a bitch." Plato (sort of)
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