Combustion. Fluorine can be burned in a flame employing hydrocarbon fuel under conditions such that fluorine provides some of the oxidation normally furnished by excess air. The products of reaction include hydrofluoric acid and carbon fluorides, the latter being inert gases with no odor. However, the hydrofluoric acid formed is objectionable and should be removed. Therefore, it is desirable, if any appreciable quantities of fluorine are to be vented, that the burner gases be scrubbed with water or alkaline solutions to remove the hydrofluoric acid. This presents an appreciable corrosion problem and equipment has to be constructed of carbon, lead, etc., to withstand dilute hydrofluoric acid solutions. This system has the disadvantages of requiring the combustion of some fuel at all times and is particularly disadvantageous for widely varying loads.Reaction with Water. The disposal of fluorine by water scrubbing is not satisfactory, because fluorine does not always react with water, for reasons unknown. Explosions have been encountered in such a system under some circumstances but not in others. Since there is insufficient information on how to control the reaction, it is not satisfactory for design at the present stage of development.Reaction with Carbon. The reaction of fluorine with carbon evolves so much heat that it is difficult to design safe equipment to handle such a process. Furthermore, the existence of an explosive compound FC (6) rules this method out.Absorption by Lime. The use of a lime slurry to remove fluorine in a liquid system is successful if sufficient contact time is provided. Because lime is a much more dilute alkali than caustic soda, the destruction of the intermediate compound, OF2, is more difficult than in the case of caustic soda. Insufficient experience has been accumulated to establish a satisfactory quantitative basis for design. Furthermore, difficulties attending the handling of slurries are involved.Absorption by Fluorides of Lower Valence. When inorganic fluorides, such as silver, antimony, cobalt, etc., are treated in their lower valence state with fluorine, they are oxidized to the higher valence state and the fluorine is absorbed. The compound of higher valence can then be reduced to its lower state by hydrogen, and the hydrofluoric acid formed can be condensed out in a refrigerated trap. This method is decidedly unsatisfactory for small installations and, for large installations, has the usual hazards of handling hydrogen as well as involving a series of operations.From the foregoing examples, it is clear that disposal of fluorine varies with the conditions involved, but the use of caustic, or of the salt-soda lime combination, represents the most convenient method for many installations.•
THE preparation of fluorine before the war was limited to small quantities on a laboratory scale and, in general, centered around the electrolysis of potassium fluoride-hydrogen fluoride solutions under three different sets of conditions: (a) an electrolyte with a mole ratio of KF.8-10 HF at room tem-A CELL for the electrolytic manufacture of elemental fluorine, using carbon anodes in an electrolyte containing potassium fluoride and hydrogen fluoride in a mole ratio of 1 to 2, has been developed and satisfactorily operated on a large scale. In large scale operation the cells are placed in separate compartments in groups of three, all emptying to a common header and connected electrically in series. Some of the units have been operated for more than 5,000,000 ampere-hours, producing in that time nearly 7000 pounds of fluorine with evidence that longer lives can be expected.
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