Hey Buddy
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Dissolving organic tissues in hydroxides
I have been dumping waste from chicken processing into a large catfish pond. Typically around 10-20 gallons or so of feet, heads and organs at a time.
Anyways, I would like to test hydroxides on some of the buckets to see how well they would dissolve the tissues and bones. I have Ca(OH)2, NaOH, and
KOH. Ca(OH)2 would be the cheapest to use to dissolve tissues because it can be bought so inexpensively in large bags but I was wondering if NaOH or
KOH would be more powerful. Or something else? Id rather not burn or bury the material. Not sure if anyone has experience with dissolving tissues in
hydroxide, but I thought I would ask in case someone could save me the time of experimenting by recommending the best hydroxide to start with or
useful thoughts to begin. The tissues are in water and blood, gallons are the units of the buckets used. Thanks.
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Sulaiman
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I believe that quicklime ( CaO ) has been used for this purpose,
when added to water you get slaked lime ( Ca(OH)2) and heat.
.....................
PS... No buyers for use as fertilizer, feedstock or pet food?
[Edited on 7-7-2023 by Sulaiman]
CAUTION : Hobby Chemist, not Professional or even Amateur
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Hey Buddy
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I don't produce enough chicken to sustain bulk sale of the waste. So I just feed it to fish. They are actually egg chickens that get culled and turned
into frozen meat. There is another farm near by that sells chicken feet in bulk, so they have the market on that.
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Sulaiman
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Breed more fish?
CAUTION : Hobby Chemist, not Professional or even Amateur
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clearly_not_atara
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This works, but the problem is that you will probably end up spending more money on alkali than you would save by not paying for another disposal
method. (See also: electrolytic reduction of iron oxide in molten NaOH)
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unionised
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You would be turning potential food into corrosive toxic waste.
Why wold you do that?
Can you sell your chicken feet to that farm?
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Rainwater
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Open up a pay lake
Offer excess to the dnr, the guys round here will take anything. (USA)
Eat more chicken
"You can't do that" - challenge accepted
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Hey Buddy
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Quote: Originally posted by unionised  | You would be turning potential food into corrosive toxic waste.
Why wold you do that?
Can you sell your chicken feet to that farm? |
Sorry for confusion, I can probably feed fish and snapping turtles forever. I just want to see what hydroxide does to the tissue. It's not an economic
or ecological concern. The waste chicken parts could be set in a field and consumed by wild animals. I'm just going to try dissolving the tissue in
hydroxide on small bucket scale for curiosity. Not necessity.
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Rainwater
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Not for the children to read
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alkaline_hydrolysis_(body_disposal)
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Hey Buddy
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Well, that was quite helpful. Thanks.
If they are using KOH, i can only assume it is more effective over the other common hydroxides. Interesting Wikipedia page
[Edited on 8-7-2023 by Hey Buddy]
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unionised
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KOH and NaOH will work, though neither will dissolve the bones.
Ca(OH)2 will sort of work, but it has a very low solubility in water, you would need a huge volume of solution, and the reaction will be very slow.
The big advantage to using KOH rather and NaOH is that the resulting solution can be neutralised and used as a potash-rich fertiliser.
If you use NaOH you would, in effect, be putting salt on the fields.
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RogueRose
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Are there any additives that would make this process faster? I seem to recall H2O2 being used for this. IIRC, isn't piranha solution H2SO4 + H2O2?
Isn't this used to clean really stubborn residual organic material on glassware? I would assume this would also work for the above process.
Would adding H2O2 to any of the bases help accelerate the process?
Would HCl + H2O2 work at all for this process?
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Rainwater
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I believe sodium hydroxide forms thick gels which are difficult to clean and potassium forms more liquid products. Atlease in making soap this is the
result.
It could also be that the potassium salts products have a more eco friendly effect when disposed of
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Tsjerk
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| Quote: Originally posted by RogueRose |
Would adding H2O2 to any of the bases help accelerate the process?
Would HCl + H2O2 work at all for this process? |
Hydroxides hydrolyse ester and amide bonds, thereby dissolving the tissue. I don't think oxidizing the tissue would really help
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