EVALUATION OF A METHOD FOR THE DESTRUCTION OF EXPIRED SODIUM METAL ON A LABORATORY SCALE
Keywords:
ethanol; dangerous waste; metallic sodiumAbstract
In the present work was to asses, on a laboratory scale, a method for the destruction of expired
metallic sodium under safe conditions. For this, its reaction with ethanol was studied, which
occurs in two stages. The variation of the temperature of the reaction system as a function of the
sodium dosing rate, the mass ratio of technical ethanol/sodium depending on the weight percent
of the ethanol used, the need for water in the second stage, and the stirring speed were
experimentally investigated. From these tests, the parameters were obtained, to safely carry out
the destruction of this metal. Finally, an elemental characterization of the waste formed was
carried out, proposing several alternatives for its management, highlighting that more than 98 %
of the ethanol used in the first stage is recovered by distillation, guaranteeing its reuse
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Copyright (c) 2025 Yamell Jiménez-Prieto, Guillermo Esperanza-Pérez, Surey Ramírez-González, Javier Martin-Santin, Juan A. Ribalta-Quesada

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