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Hydrochloric Acid
Purification
Introduction
Hydrochloric acid is one of the commonest
chemicals
available today and is used in a wide variety of
applications, some of the most important being:
Metal cleaning - pickling acid.
Petroleum industry - activation of oil well heads.
Food industry - production of sugars, dextrose,
mono-sodium glutamate and starch syrups.
Chemical synthesis/manufacture - organic
chlorides, for example, vinyl chloride.
Leather/tanning industry.
Technical Information
However, disposal costs associated with spent
HCI have been steadily rising and when they are
considered along with the cost of purchasing
fresh acid, it becomes practical to closely
examine the economics of purification of the
spent acid for re-use.
Purification can be simply achieved using the
QVF equipment shown in figure 1.
Process Description
Crude acid (typically of concentration 20 to 35%
w/w) is pumped to a constant head feed vessel
from where it passes, via a control valve and
flowmeter, to a reboiler with one or more steam
heat exchangers mounted in a thermosyphon
loop arrangement. The feed acid is then
evaporated, the vapour passing to a water
cooled reflux condenser
.
Figure 1
PPAE 07
Technical Information
Applications
The QVF hydrochloric acid purification system will
operate on any hydrochloric acid up to 36% w/w
concentration to give a pure product essentially of
analytical reagent quality. While all non-volatile
impurities are completely removed by the
purification process, it cannot, however, fully cope
with volatile impurities such as chlorine and
organics. A proportion of these impurities will
remain in the product acid.
Typical Results
Sample A
Sample B
Before
After
Before
After
Appearance
Clear
yellow/brown
with no deposit
Clear and
colourless with
no deposit
Turbid, yellow/
brown with
heavy red
floating deposit
Slightly turbid
and colourless
with no deposit
1.145
1.148
1.154
1.157
29.8
29.5
30.0
30.8
29.4
29.9
30.5
31.3
0.73
0.59
0.67
0.69
634
16
2,692
50
Sulphite (ppm)
Absent
Absent
Absent
Absent
Iron as Fe (ppm)
196
0.4
51.2
3.0
Bromine as Br (ppm)
Less than 30
Less than 30
Less than 30
Less than 30
PPAE 07