Silver Recovery

MarkJ913 · Jan 6, 2009

Porter's Camera sells an electrolytic silver recovery kit (http://porters.com/Merchant2/mercha...uct_Code=221063&Product_Count=&Category_Code=) for about $46. Supposedly if you go through a gallon of fixer a week, you will get 30-50 troy ounces of silver a year. Once the "silver magnet" is full you send it to the company that makes it (not Porter's) and they pay you for the silver. A replacement pickup cell costs about $18. I don't know if this is worth it, but at least there is someone you can actually get the silver to and recover some cash.

jwil6969 · Feb 15, 2009

To add to the confusion Porter's Camera Store In Idaho I think sells a unit that consist of a step down converter and a plastic covered device that leeches the silver out of solution by electrolysis. When the unit that is submerged in the tray becomes thoroughly covered you place the device in a plastic bag and ship it back to the manufacturer. They will weigh the silver and send you a check. You can then order another unit from Porter's. I think I bought the unit and one replacement unit for about
$40.00 or there abouts. Since I usually use all my chemicals one shot the units last a long time. .02 for what is worth.

Jeff Bannow · Apr 17, 2009

Ian Grant said:
There's nothing worse than each Forum being filled with Sticky threads, and currently there are far too many as it is. I will write the Silver Recovery article but it will be a month or so before I'll get time.

Ian

Ian,

Did the article ever get written? I'm very interested in reading it.

Smudger · Apr 18, 2009

Re ; jbannow's post..

Ditto.

Jesse V · May 20, 2009

add me to the interest.

Emulsion · Jun 9, 2009

The following article has a section on silver recovery:
http://motion.kodak.com/motion/uplo...t_en_motion_support_processing_h245_h2405.pdf

ChuckP · Jun 15, 2009

I've used the Porter's silver recovery unit. If the supplied test strips are any indication of silver content it appears to work. The strip indicates silver to start and none or much less after a couple days of using the unit. So it's doing something.

removed account4 · Aug 1, 2009

David A. Goldfarb said:
While we're on the subject--for those who use the method of pouring spent fixer into a jug or a vat with steel wool--do any of you folks actually have someplace that will buy the sludge and recycle the silver from it? If so, where do you send it? I realize that silver recovery companies have systems with cartridges and such for larger labs, but does anyone have a name of a company that takes silver waste in the form you would get from homebrew silver recovery? I realize that it might take a while to amass enough sludge in a home darkroom to make it worth recycling, but say I wanted to save it up and do it every couple of years. Where would I go?

No Google answers, please. I want to know who really does it and what their experience has been with companies that will actually take this stuff in small quantities.

david

i think it is probably not feasible for a "little guy" to collect and try to
sell the silver sludge, but maybe people could "pool" their sludge locally
and have a larger amount. there may be listings under
refiners, electrolplaters &C in your local phone book, maybe they
would give you a better idea of what the minimum amount that would be
accepted would be ..

sorry i couldn't be of more help

john

J. Miller Adam · Sep 14, 2009

OK, Silver Wizards, here's a funny wrinkle on this discussion Just imagine for a moment that you run a high school darkroom and at least once or twice a year a kid gets confused and dumps his (or her) tankful of fixer into the main Hypo Clear tank (or Perma Wash, in my case). Is this now-contaminated hypo clear/perma wash safe to run through my trusty old electrolytic X-Rite silver recovery unit?

My inclination is to add it to a batch of old fix and run it through rather than dump it down the drain.

Any advice?

Thanks in advance!

Neal · Sep 14, 2009

Dear J.,

Check to see if the concentration is below what the X-rite requires for operation. I seriously doubt there is anything in Perma-Wash that would cause problems.

Your idea of adding another used batch of fixer is a good one.

Neal Wydra

mattmoy_2000 · Oct 13, 2009

Silver costs less than $18/tr.oz on the metal markets. You'd have to process an awful lot of film in order to get $1000 worth out. Sticking wire wool in seems to be pretty effective at detoxifying fix, even if you do only end up with worthless sludge. Whilst it seems a shame to throw silver in the bin, it's actually not that expensive (compare this with Gold which costs over $1k/tr.oz) and requires pretty much industrial-scale recovery to be economically viable.

rtuttle · Nov 20, 2009

I sell silver regularly, those are called ion exchange devices and nobody will pay for them, in fact you have to pay to get rid of them. The only way to get silver you can sell is by something called electrolytic silver recovery. It's a device that charges a plate and the silver will stick to it allowing you to chip it off when it's full. They are not cheap and for most people who develop at home would take a lifetime to recoup the investment.

removed account4 · Nov 20, 2009

you might want to check out the silver magnet.
you send the electrode covered with silver back to the manufacturer in the bag they provide and they will give you money for your silver.
the devices do not cost very much, they work very well, and pretty much pay for themselves.
there are no minimum levels of silver you need to have on the electrode ( you can send it back with 1/2 troy oz or 30 troy oz )
there are no minimums or fees involved ( except for a few percent of the total for overhead ) ...

if you want to get the silver out of your waste stream this might work for you.

rtuttle · Nov 20, 2009

Silver magnet is just a small electrolytic device like I described. Will work with low volume like a home darkroom. Unfortunately with the volume of fixer I use at my day job we would have the dec here looking very mean!

removed account4 · Nov 20, 2009

rtuttle said:
Silver magnet is just a small electrolytic device like I described. Will work with low volume like a home darkroom. Unfortunately with the volume of fixer I use at my day job we would have the dec here looking very mean!

the dec ? whats that

rtuttle · Nov 23, 2009

DEC Department of Environmental Conservation! Another one of the Empire State roving taxation machines!

didden · Dec 24, 2009

I am not interested in silver recovery but what is the best way to get rid of fixer from home developing. What is the easiest acceptable way of doing this?

thanks

Anscojohn · Dec 24, 2009

Photo Engineer said:
Don't use any electricity, just throw in a piece of steel wool (Iron, not stainless). Silver will plate out. Read other posts on this to brush up.

PE

******
My understanding is that the steel wool must be free of any oil for this to work well.

removed account4 · Dec 24, 2009

didden said:
I am not interested in silver recovery but what is the best way to get rid of fixer from home developing. What is the easiest acceptable way of doing this?

thanks

check with your local water/sewer department to see how to get rid of it.
without getting the silver out, bringing it to home-chemical waste disposal centers run by your local area ..
is probably the easiest way ...

you could also invest about 50$ (USD) and get a silver magnet.
it is painless, will plate out the silver from your spent fixer overnight.
it will last for years .... and when you cash in the silver you will make back
your initial investment easily ... ( see link in my sig )

good luck!
john

CBG · Dec 26, 2009

I'm not sure, in every jurisdiction, that checking with the jurisdiction is the wisest choice for the first call, other than where it is required. Some may be rather unschooled in the niceties, and may have impractical suggestions or unreasonable demands. Too often, I see all photo chemicals lumped in together as if they all had one environmental profile, and one mitigation routine. Perhaps larger and more sophisticated municipalities will have an accurate understanding of the various materials involved, but I'd look before I leap. Regardless, responsible disposal is a responsibility and educating yourself is the first step. Many people here have a great deal of knowledge they are happy to offer.

Janos · Jan 1, 2010

Neutralising tank.

Hi John,
I've just joined the APUG, saw your post. I have one of those tanks for my B&W darkroom. Local council regs state that a permanent darkroom must have one- (I rescued mine in a throwout at the local college). The stones are marble, analagous to limestone, and they supposedly neutralise acidity, making their effluent ph neutral and therefore better for the environment. Works, apparently. We never clean them. Having said that, you should be keeping your exhausted fixer in the containers it came in, not just pouring it down the sink, as this is where the silver is. Try and find someone who recovers silver in your state or area, they will take the fixer, get the silver, and give you half the money. I haven't done this for a long time, am just starting my first darkroom in 25 years, so I'll let you know how it goes.
Re. the silver, apparently as the other reply said, steel wool or old scrap steel is chucked into big plastic tubs, the fixer is poured in. After a certain amount of time, don't know how long, but days, not hours, - silver binds to the steel. Liquid is poured off, steel is put in a furnace, silver melts out somehow, is poured out, thereby recovered. I've never done this myself, but once knew a bloke who did it for a living. Ask an industrial chemist.
Either way, throwing fixer down the drain is throwing away silver. All other (B&W) chemicals should be OK to pour down. Naturally vestiges of silver will end up there, but if films/prints are properly fixed, the silver will stay in the fixer. You won't get any silver out of the marble tank. And don't throw out the rocks!
Hope this answers your question, and I'm curious too, about what it does to the other typical chemistry which goes down the drain. Have fun and a good new year,

Jan Dallas.

thebanana said:
Several of us use a very nicely laid out darkroom at our local Art Gallery. There are two large sinks, and all chemicals eventually get dumped down them. Each sink is equipped with a recovery unit of some sort. The units are plastic holding tanks, about 20 gal. each. I'm told there are rocks or stones of some sort in each tank. To my knowledge they haven't been cleaned out in 4 or 5 years. Can anyone offer advice on how to go about doing this? Where would one dispose of the sludge that I imagine is sitting in each tank? I assume there is some silver involved, does it make sense to try to recover it? What else should we be aware of? Thanks.
John

rafik · Dec 14, 2010

Greetings to all, I am new in the forum.
I have noticed that many of you know about silver recovery; well I already do it a pair of years and have learned a lot of by practice. But there is something that I cannot solve.
Good, I process every 20 liters of X-ray fixer and have noticed that when this one has been mixed by a little of another mark of fixer (sometimes the radiologists add slightly more of fixer when it already does not fix sufficient), this at the time of processing gets dark only after a few minutes of initiating the electrolysis, I assume that there is a formation of silver sulfide, losing this way the efficiency of the cell and obtaining black silver.
Also the silver sulfide in the fixer when it stopped processing does not decant even after a month of rest.
I generally work with 10 amperes as maximum and process manual fixer and when the fixer is not combined by another mark I do not have any problem, the process is excellent.
Someone might advise me, how to solve this disadvantage? and what could I make to recovery the whole silver sulfide in suspension?
I dont know, maybe some chemist might add.
I will be grateful for your help, and allow me to say to you that I find interesting all your comments.
Regards

rafik
oa4dma

Stuggi · Jan 13, 2011

The problem is probably that the fixer then isn't exhausted, and therefore interferes with the process. Tell them to make a fresh batch when it stops fixing properly, or fix a bit of scrap film until it stops fixing properly again. Undeveloped film is best for this, that way you're making sure that you get as much silver in the fix as possible since the film contains almost no free silver and just silver halide.

rafik · Jun 15, 2011

Hi, I am new in the forum and I would want to get more information about silver recovery.
The last two years I was recovery silver from X-Ray fixer solutions and I have had good results but as long as I desilver fixer solutions from automatic labs.
I find problems when I desilver manual fixers which in my country is still using.
I have built an eletrolytic cell for 20 liter and it has an graphite anode and a stainless stell cathode; usually I work which 10 amperes - 4 volts but when I desilver which this parameters manual X-Ray fixer this "burn" and even if I reduce it until 1 ampere.
I tried to find a solution for this anyway but I have not had success.
Please If somebody has an advice what to do I will be really grateful for your help.
I hope I get a soon answer.
Faithfully

rafik · Jun 15, 2011

Thak you very much Stuggi, unfortunally problem persists.

Silver Recovery

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