I find it amazing that they still make them in high-wage countries. Probably it is a highly automated process.
Be careful with that lofty warranty statement. I had several Duracell batteries that have leaked badly in storage after just a couple of years. They were stored in a cabinet inside the house, dry and at room temperature.
Yesterday my wife changed out an AA cell from a different brand that had gotten lost in some Christmas stuff, she forgot which brand. Empty, expiration date 2007 (!) and ... no leakage whatsoever.
The topper were small made-somewhere-in-Outsourcia alkaline #357 coin cells I received as spares included in the packages of digital thermometers, two spares each. Bought around 1990. These thermometers are very frugal on power so they last 10 years. Plopped in the 1st set of spares around the year 2000 -> worked. Installed the 2nd set of spares around 2010 -> worked but not the full 10 years. "Only" six years after which they were empty. Leakage: None.
They should probably hire some chemistry experts to find out what is going on. Preferably independent ones. I have had several fairly fresh and also some completely unused Duracell batteries leak within a few years of purchase, and of different sizes (so possibly coming from different factories). Can't remember any other alkaline brand that leaked in a long time.
This is the stuff that makes customers run away, including big ones.
Those probably still contain mercury. Which would also mean you can't throw them in the trash can when depleted, they'd have to go into hazardous waste.
It's not just Duracell. Here's my Costco Kirkland AAA "leak in the box" cells: The package spent probably 6+ years in an indoor storage box (unplugged refrigerator) essentially at room temperature, so the leakage wasn't inspired by temperature excursions. I had a similar problem with a package of Eveready AA cells that I tossed without photographing.
Conventional wisdom seems to favor zinc corrosion, that releases hydrogen gas, which pushes the electrolyte out through the overpressure vent hole or along the case seams: Zinc corrodes best in an acidic environment, which is why alkaline batteries use an alkaline electrolyte. In theory, the zinc should not corrode or outgas.
Consumer alkaline batteries have been around (and merrily leaking) since the early 1960's. Better, but more expensive alternatives have been produced and generally fail to sell because of the cost. What most users seem to want is a cheap and adequately powerful battery at the lowest possible cost.
Judging by a patent search, the best non-mercury fix for hydrogen outgassing is an indium based compound, which I suspect is rather expensive. My wild guess(tm) is that some of the recent alkaline battery failures are due to the substitution of some cheaper compound. I haven't been able to identify the substitute, yet.
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Where? Anywhere that sells Alkaline batteries usually carries 'Super Heavy Duty' which are Carbon Zinc. I was at Dollar Tree a couple hours ago, and they had AAA, AA, C, D and 9V in both Carbon Zinc and Alkaline.
As to when, what does that matter, if they are for sale in millions of places? As always, you try to change the subject.
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Even though the 'Super Heavy Duty' uses a different electolyte, it is still a 'Carbon Zinc' cell.
About 3,420,000 results (0.66 seconds) Shop for super heavy duty battery on Google
No Costco in my area, so that point is moot. The nearest is about 90 to 100 minute drive. I'm sure you've seen batteries at other places that you shop.
So, you have NEVER used Google to find a source for a product or component? Why would Google have 3,420,000 choices in their online sales? Keep shoveling the bullshit, but you'll never finish mucking out your mess.
Have you got grey imports intended for the Canadian market ?
But there are still a few people needed to tend the machines. Belgium offers tempting expat deals to multinational corporates.
Maybe not, but offering such a warrantee usually implies confidence in the reliability of the product. Japanese cars being a prime example.
US companies may offer such warrantees with impossible to meet T&Cs attached like must produce the receipt stamped by the dealer as a marketing tactic but it backfires badly if the product is crap.
It is generally done by electrolysis these days chlor-alkali plants around the world acting as sink loads for the national grid.
They don't use *any* CO2 they are trying to manufacture pure caustic or on the more exotic molten salt plants the pure metals.
KOH rips water vapour and CO2 out of the air it is really rather reactive. CO2 scrubbers use caustic to eliminate it. KOH left open to the air for any length of time quickly turns into the carbonate salt. It is a bit of a nuisance for working with wet cell NiFe & NiCd batteries.
You are better off using water and rubbing to clean it. Vinegar can also cause corrosion and copper acetate is fairly soluble. You will end up replacing alkaline corrosion with acid corrosion if you are not careful. Once exposed to the air the KOH rapidly becomes a fair bit less caustic
- though still not something you want on your fingers.
I had some cells whose electronic over-discharge protection had latched the cells in the disconnected state. Reaching around the circuit boards and charging the cells directly reset them back to normal operation.
After that, I discovered I could do the same thing without opening the cell by going through the body diode of the protection MOSFET. Carefully upping the charge voltage by a diode's worth, then charging at ~3mA until the protection circuit reset did the trick. The circuit would reset when the cell inside hit ~3.2V, IIRC, then was ready for normal service.
Not at all. It's nothing more than marketing. The potential returns are simply figured into the cost of the product. Few will bother to return a sub $1 widget.
If the product is pure crap, they company gets the deserved black eye whether there is a good warranty or not. People really don't *want* to use a warranty. They want the product to work. Any warranty is a PITA to use.
I saw a documentary on the Ray-o-Vac battery plant, yeah, all automatic machines, people only load the inputs (rolls of metal, bulk chemicals, etc.), and take away the filled pallets.
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Interesting new development I noticed in the run up to Xmas there is at the checkout a new Duracell AA brand of "Simple" in yellow. Didn't check where made - will do next time.
They now do several variants of marketing speak slogans on coppertops. (they all feature the dayglo pink bunny though)
No links or references? How do we know what you are talking about?
Anyway, CO2 scrubbing in power plants is moving to amines, such as described here ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The flue gas coming from the power station has a temperature of approx. 65C after desulphurization.
It first reaches a wet scrubber where it is cooled and freed from any residual traces of sulphur dioxide (SO2) that might impair CO2 scrubbing. A fan then transports the flue gas to the absorber, through which it flows bottom-up. This is where it meets the scrubbing solution, an aqueous solution of amines (a group of organic substances), which is added at the head of the absorber and, in a counter current flow, takes up the CO2 from the flue gas. The low CO2 flue gas is scrubbed with water before leaving the absorber to remove any residues of the scrubbing agent, and finally reaches the atmosphere by the normal route via the stack or cooling tower.
The scrubbing solution saturated with CO2 is conducted to a so-called desorber and heated there to approx. 120C, which strips the CO2 from the liquid and makes it available in a high purity.
The hot scrubbing agent freed from CO2 is cooled and then pumped back to the absorber, where the scrubbing cycle can start again.
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I had hoped to avoid getting entangled in this topic due to the complexity and constantly changing technologies.
The topic is converting potassium hydroxide into potassium carbonate using CO2. What other industies do for their purposes is out of range.
However, I attach some TL;DR references to the end of this post.
Quote:"for any length of time quickly turns into the carbonate salt"
You contradict yourself. Any length of time is the opposite of quickly.
The corrosive effect of vinegar is negligible. It decomposes to methane as it dries.
However, the vinegar neutralizes any residual alkalines per the standard acid-base neutralization equation:
acid + base = salt + water
Without this, you cannot be certain you are getting all the potassium alkalines with a plain water scrub.
There is no comparison between vinegar and potassium hydroxide. You put vinegar on food and salad, such as fish and chips and Romain lettuce. You would never put potassium hydroxide on food.
Anyway, as I stated below, rinse the vinegar off with plain water then dry.
Again, "rapidly" is the opposite of "any length of time"
As you state, it takes time to convert KOH to K2CO3. Meanwhile, the hydroxide corrodes everything it touches, so the damage is done before the conversion begins.
There is another complication. The K2CO3 takes CO2 and water from the air and produces potassium bicarbonate:
K2CO3 + CO2 + H2O --> 2KHCO3
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The bicarbonate is non-corrosive.
The difference is similar to the difference between sodium carbonate (washing soda), Na2CO3, and sodium bicarbonate, (baking soda), NaHCO3. You use washing soda in laundry, and baking soda in cooking.
So once the hydroxide has destroyed everything, by the time you get around to opening the battery compartment, you should find little potassium hydroxide, and plenty of harmless potassium bicarbonate.
This explains the photo and claims in the Wikipedia article
"Potassium carbonate, formed from the hydroxide solution leaking from an alkaline battery:"
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Here are some more TL;DR links for your info. Sorry for the wraps. List is courtesy of Nir Sofer,
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Potassium Carbonate Sources
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Making "K" Pay in Your Vineyard: Dripping Potassium Carbonate into the System | Beesource Beekeeping
Patent US1562891 - Process for the production of potassium carbonate - Google Patents
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Patent US3141730 - Production of potassium bicarbonate - Google Patents
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62505.pdf
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s.pdf?sequence=1 Nicholas_Devries.pdf
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US 5449506 A Process For Producing Potassium Carbonate - The Lens
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What are the uses of potassium carbonate? | Manufacturing
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What happens if you mix potassium carbonate and water?
How do the CDRA and Vozdukh systems scrub carbon dioxide from the air on the International Space Station (ISS)?
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CO2 scrubbing in spacecraft
In the future, hydrogen can be combined with crew exhaled carbon dioxide to reclaim water (4H2 + CO2 --> 2H2O + CH4). This process is called the Sabatier Reaction. Methane, a natural gas, produced by the Sabatier Reaction is vented overboard into space. The Sabatier Reaction drives what is known as the CO2 reduction assembly because carbon dioxide is reduced in the chemical process of reduction-oxidation. The Sabatier reaction will be a crucial requirement for future long-duration space flight. Future technologies may be able to use methane for propulsion fuel. The reclaimed water is passed through the water recovery system and can be filtered into drinking water or put into the oxygen generator system to reclaim more oxygen.
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Claim: CO2 makes you stupid? Ask a submariner that question
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We produce carbon dioxide in our bodies when our cells break down food and we release it when we exhale. In the atmosphere, carbon dioxide concentrations are approximately 0.04 percent. However, in the confined cabins of spacecraft, like the space shuttle or space stations, the carbon dioxide concentration can get much higher, which poses a problem because carbon dioxide is toxic. As carbon dioxide concentration in the air around you increases, you will suffer certain symptoms:
At 1 percent - drowsiness At 3 percent - impaired hearing, increased heart rate and blood pressure, stupor At 5 percent - shortness of breath, headache, dizziness, confusion At 8 percent - unconsciousness, muscle tremors, sweating Above 8 percent - death
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spacecraft.htm ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Carbon dioxide scrubber From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A carbon dioxide scrubber is a device which absorbs carbon dioxide (CO2). It is used to treat exhaust gases from industrial plants or from exhaled air in life support systems such as rebreathers or in spacecraft, submersible craft or airtight chambers. Carbon dioxide scrubbers are also used in controlled atmosphere (CA) storage. They have also been researched for carbon capture.
Other strong bases such as soda lime, sodium hydroxide, potassium hydroxide, and lithium hydroxide are able to remove carbon dioxide by chemically reacting with it. In particular, lithium hydroxide was used aboard spacecraft, such as in the Apollo program, to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. It reacts with carbon dioxide to make lithium carbonate.[10] Recently lithium hydroxide absorbent technology has been adapted for use in anesthesia machines.
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How to Convert Baking Soda into Washing Soda Shepherd School
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