Re: PCB Question

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "Jason Petrou by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <jasonp-at-btinternet-dot-com>

Sorry, forgot to add that you can do the same thing with chlorine water -
just the smell changes. PCB oils leave a chlorine smell and non pcb oils
dont.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
To: <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
Sent: Thursday, May 24, 2001 12:01 AM
Subject: Re: PCB Question


> Original poster: "Jason Petrou by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>"
<jasonp-at-btinternet-dot-com>
>
> >From the ammonia SG bloke...
>
> This works for me...
> Take a little oil from the tranny, and drop some onto a piece of
fibreglass
> wool. Place this at thoe bottom of a boiling tube, and somehow hold the
tube
> n its side. Then, place a few bits of broken pot about halfway down the
> tube. (plant pot works perfectly). Put a stopper in the end and stick a
> glass tube in the stopper so that any gasses goven off from the test tube
> will pass thru the tube coming out of the test tube. Then get a bit of
> rubber tube and jam it over the glass tube. Put this bit of tube in a
basin
> of water, then put a water filled test tube over it, so any gasses that
come
> out of the rubber tube will collect 'under water' in the second test tube.
> Then, with the first test tubve still on its side strongly heat the bits
of
> broken pot from underneath with a blowtorch. The oil will evaporate from
the
> wool, and pass over the broken pot. The gas will collect in the second
tube.
> This gas is heavier than air so once you have collected a full tube be
> careful not to 'pour out' the gas.
>
> Next, put about 1 inch of weak bromine solution in the bottom of the tube.
> If you cant get bromine, iodine will work but it must be warmed to about
50
> degrees C before you put it in the tube. (also needless to say if the
> halogen in the PCB oil is iodine then nothing will happen) Stick a stopper
> in that tube and shake HARD. After about a minute the solution will change
> colour - there are 2 possibilities:
>
> 1) The solution in the tube goes clear. This shows that you have a non-pcb
> oil. The oil molecules are 'cracked' by the broken pot (which is a
catalyst)
> into a liquid hydrocarbon (which collects on the surface of the water) and
a
> gas called ethene. The ethene will react with the bromine to produce
> 1,1dibromoethene or 1,2dibromoethene, both of which are colourless.
>
> 2) The solution will not change, or only partially changes. The halogen in
> the PCB oil has already reacted with the ethene to produce 1,1 or 1,2
> di(halogen)ethene. Therefore if the reaction has already taken place, you
> cannot react any bromine with it, because it has already all reacted. If
the
> solution turns slightly more clear, then it is just reaction with the
excess
> ethene.
>
> I hope this helps - It seems to work IMHO. Here in the UK you can pay (not
> too much) to have PCB oils removed from trannys without being fined. I
have
> used this method and if there are any biggggg chemical booboos i have made
> please let me know.
>
> The process above with the pot is called cat cracking or catalyst cracking
> and is used to break long chain hydrocarbons into shorter ones.
>
> Have fun!!!
>
> Jason
> P.s. I tried the ammonia gap with an old adjustable glass xray tube. It
> works fine, until it starts to get hot. I noticed that the electrodes did
> not burn though as the were tungsten. Then the whole thing promptly
> exploded... so much for me bringing it ti Corby!!! moral is thicked glass,
> slightly less ammonia (0.8atm instead of 1) and some kind of cooling.
later
> all...
>
>
>
>