question for chemical experts

[discusmith]

I have an unlimited source for free 55 gal. plastic barrels but there is a major drawback. They were used to hold cleaning chemicals in a food processing plant. I would not bother but I have no other source in my area. The chemicals are sodium hydroxide, potasium hydroxide, and sodium hypochloride. Is there any way to neutralize any of these to make them safe?

[CARY_GLdiscus]

All can be cleaned out with water! And Am No expert! Just trying to Help!


However sodium hydroxide can be harmful
http://neuro.pathology.pitt.edu/webstuff/Procedure%20Manual/NP%20CJD%20Precautions.html

[vickie s]

No expert here (but when did that ever stop me ;)).
Do you mean Sodium Hypochlorite (rather than hypochloride)? If so, that is plain bleach and you can soak that out with water and dechlor. Sodium hydroxide is lye (formarly used as a drain cleaner and is used in making soap), it is basic but any that is rinsed from the container will be dilute and will degrade into non-hazardous components. Potassium hydroxide is know as lye or caustic potash. It too, is basic and will rinse out and degrade. Be very careful with any residual liquid in the bottom of the containers (prior to a good rinsing) as they can damage your skin and clothes. HTH
vickie

[aggie_67]

Hate to say this because it always comes back to haunt you, but I am an expert in this area (retired chemical engineer who manufactured those type cleaning agents.) Everything said above is perfectly valid but do have a question. Did the drums contain a propriatary cleaning agent of which you mentioned "some " of the contents? It would be unusual to find these products mixed together with out other ingredients to make it special. Probably will clean up, know it sounds werid but after I cleaned my aged water drum I tasted the last rinse water to make sure it was "clean." Probably spent too many years in a chemical plant.

One note worth mentioning, when I got my aged water drum from my old plant they brought me up to speed on plastic drums. In Houston they are now selling new drums made from recycled plastic, $10 for a 55 gal drum. Not food grade, they can't because you never know what was in the recycled plastic but I feel it 99.99% as good as virgin plastic.

[discusmith]

Thanks for the replys. I can choose the ones that contained only one of those particular chemicals and while I assumed they could be rinsed well, I figured it was worth asking.