Bulk storage of calcium hydroxide?

jonelder68 · Mar 31, 2024

I have access to 50lbs sacks of Mississippi lime vitacal calcium hydroxide and was wondering how I should store it? Needs to be air tight? I’m thinking of separating it into several ziplock bags and then putting in 5 gallon buckets. My thoughts were when I need to dose I can use one bag at a time and scope out of it minimizing air exposure time etc. Thoughts?

Randy Holmes-Farley · Mar 31, 2024

Your suggestion sounds fine to me.

I too used it in 50 pound bags, though it was calcium oxide I obtained in a group buy. It was a long time ago, but IIRC I stored it in salt mix buckets with the lid on tightly. No baggies when i did it.

jonelder68 · Mar 31, 2024

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
Your suggestion sounds fine to me.

I too used it in 50 pound bags, though it was calcium oxide I obtained in a group buy. It was a long time ago, but IIRC I stored it in salt mix buckets with the lid on tightly. No baggies when i did it.

Did you just remove the lid every time you needed to scoop out? My worries were say a 5 gallon bucket half full. The other half would be air every time you sealed the bucket up. Wasn’t sure if that air would cause problems?

Randy Holmes-Farley · Mar 31, 2024

jonelder68 said:
Did you just remove the lid every time you needed to scoop out? My worries were say a 5 gallon bucket half full. The other half would be air every time you sealed the bucket up. Wasn’t sure if that air would cause problems?

Yes, I did. There was likely some conversion to calcium carbonate over time, but in my application (adding excess to a settled reservoir), it made no difference to me if it was 100% potent or 90% or whatever. Might be a different issue in a reactor setup.

jonelder68 · Mar 31, 2024

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
Yes, I did. There was likely some conversion to calcium carbonate over time, but in my application (adding excess to a settled reservoir), it made no difference to me if it was 100% potent or 90% or whatever. Might be a different issue in a reactor setup.

I was planning on running an avast stirrer on my system. But have also been considering just a reservoir mixture as I have the space. (Basement sump)

Randy Holmes-Farley · Mar 31, 2024

jonelder68 said:
I was planning on running an avast stirrer on my system. But have also been considering just a reservoir mixture as I have the space. (Basement sump)

I prefer dosing from a settled reservoir and always had substantial excess solids on the bottom.

Just keep in mind that the gas that enters cannot really deplete much each time, even if every bit of the CO2 present reacted.

.
1 liter of air contains only 0.0006 grams of CO2, which can only deplete a roughly similar amount of calcium hydroxide. Adding 1 L of air every day and it all reacting would only consume 0.2 grams in a year.

jonelder68 · Mar 31, 2024

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
I prefer dosing from a settled reservoir and always had substantial excess solids on the bottom.

Just keep in mind that the gas that enters cannot really deplete much each time, even if every bit of the CO2 present reacted.

.
1 liter of air contains only 0.0006 grams of CO2, which can only deplete a roughly similar amount of calcium hydroxide. Adding 1 L of air every day and it all reacting would only consume 0.2 grams in a year.

Wow ok! Thank you Randy your such a wealth of knowledge. Appreciate your input