Distiller/chemist/engineering feedback needed

[LWTCS]

In Florida we are having a major problem with "Chinese Reactive Drywall", as is Louisianna and other places.

As you may or may not know, the primary issue with this building material is the sulfer.

Copper pipes through out many houses are being discolored (or the like) at an excellerated rate. A/C systems are thought to have excellerated the service life of a/C coils due to a hyper exposure to the sulfer off gasing.

And, we are now finding that the failures are/have been occuring within the (silver solder)sweats rather than actual copper failure.

Question 1
Can the/any surface area of copper (as such) be so taxed, that it will no longer(during distilling as an example) absorb sulferic off gasing created by,,,,say,,,, yeast?

Question 2
Could one say that copper can (sort of) magnetically attract sulferic off gasing ? Or that sulferic,,,,,,odor/off gasing would have to be mechenically forced across a copper surface area to nueturalize any,,,,,,,,,,,off smell?

I would like to recommend that an "Air scrubber" out fitted with a copper mesh filter would be benificial to help reduce sulferic off gassing odors created by our remediation efforts on a "Chinese Reactive Drywall" house.

I am not a qualified scientist/engineer or the like. Your responce to this question is really more or less,,,,,,just thoughts on the matter.

But I think the relationship between copper and sulfer during distilling may prove to be benificial as it relates to this building catastrophe here and in other parts of the country.

Any thoughts are very much appriciated on behalf of our folks affected by this,,,,,,,,crime.

[Hawke]

Hmmm, have not heard of this. U.S. made drywall is 100% organic gypsum. Most sufites, sulfates and sulfides would be neutralized by gypsum.

[LWTCS]

Hawke,
Please continue to think out loud as you collect your thoughts

[Hawke]

1/2 litre of 80% precludes much 'thought'.
Sulfer products normally lead to acidic compounds, gypsom is a base.

[Dnderhead]

from my understanding they used coal ash as a extender.
saying that, you have to "eliminate" the problem ,not just the odor,,,take that anyway you want...........

[Husker]

This is the first I have heard of this shoddy quality building material causing this problem. Can you be more specific on 'which' sulfur compounds are the problem (likely SO2, sulphur dioxide, but I would like to know for sure).

NOTE I am not a chemist, and am not 'sure' just what reaction happens within the distillation apparatus. However, I am pretty sure it happens due to high temp vapor reacting with the copper.

H.

[LWTCS]

In a nutshell:

We will be setting up a clean space containment area to micro clean the furnishings as they are moved to an off site storage area.

All workers are fit tested for respirators.

We will remove all wallboard within the (really big) house.

After all walboard is removed, we will "air out " with air scrubbing machines. And we will micro clean the rough framing and the like.

All other house utilities will be evaluated and removed as necessary.

After a period of time, an evaluation will be performed to conclude that the odor/symptom causing effects have been eliminated.

Then we will put the house back together.

[LWTCS]

Humidity seems to excellerate the symptoms/effects caused by reactive drywall.

[HookLine]

Might well be the specific brand, not drywall in general. Drywall (called Gyprock here) is used in vast quantities around here in all sorts of buildings, and there are no serious problems with it, that I am aware of.

However, having done a fair bit of plaster casting at one point, I can tell you that gypsum plus moisture is quite corrosive on some metals. It will rust out galv and plain steel if you do not clean it off. No idea what its effect on copper is.

Also, gypsum is calcium sulphate, so it contains a shit load of sulphur to start with (as sulphate).

•••••••••••••

Sounds like a fun job there, LWTCS.

[pumpman]

LWTCS I havn't herd of that problem either just the molding issue. Is this sientificly proven or is this something the home owner thought up. I know some very welthy home owners can be quite excentric. If it is proven are there any helth issues. I would also like to know what time frame this wallboard has been used for.

[LWTCS]

Google chinese reactive drywall.

Used during the boom years (2003-2007) as American made board supplies depleated. The "industry" imported the product from China to satisfy demand.

The odor and health issues do not exsist with American made boards.

My (new) employer is spearheading an effort to create protocals for dealing with this issue here in Florida (and all over for that matter).

The Florida Professional Coalition for Chinese (reactive) Drywall.
http://www.ChineseDrywallProtocal.org" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow.

Our organization has created a living document that will inform repair contractors,occupants and workers of the requirements for the safe removal and disposal of the chinese drywall, while protecting the well being of workers and occupants.

My company (employer) has a remediation crew for the extraction component. My involvement is with the build back and all of the planning associated with that.

Folks have not heard much because there may be some political fallout due to conflict of interest issues.

So, back to my interest in the relationship of copper and sulfer.

[Husker]

Bad link.

Still falls back to the original query, do you know 'what' specific sulphuric compound is causing this?

H.

[snuffy]

Lime water scrubbers for coal plants produce gypsum and calcium sulfate as waste. This is frequently used in drywall. Very high sulfur coal would produce excessive amounts.

So probably mostly sulfates of calcium -- depending on other metal ions in the scrubber solution could have other metal sulfates as well. Iron sulfate would be very problematic -- aka green vitriol.

*edit*
a little googling turned up:

Irrespective of the source (which is still open to debate), preliminary analytical testing of Chinese drywall samples have revealed strontium sulfide, hydrogen sulfide, carbon disulfide and carbonyl sulfide which could all contribute to the vaporization of sulfuric acid which is most likely the cause of all the symptoms and damage to both metals and humans within the house.

http://pepperpro.net/index.php/chinese_ ... g_service/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

So the original question's short answer is yes: sulfuric compounds can load up the copper surface and it will turn black. Clean with vinegar/salt or HCl/peroxide (nasty and corrosive)? Or just put in new mesh, but if this is a bad case of contamination, stored mesh might be turning black as well. Wait for somebody to report an actual occurrence, since imagining results is a lot different than examining them.

[LWTCS]

http://www.chinesedrywallprotocol.org/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

This link should work.

[The Chemist]

Question 1: Yes.
When the corrosion totally covers the elemental copper, no more crap will stick.


Question 2: No, Yes.

No "magnetic" attraction, copper doesn't 'suck'...it must physically contact the copper.

[LWTCS]

Thanks TC