I think Alan's solution of re-cycling waste is the most environmental
friendly. It may even be a good product idea - a small self-contained tank
with all necessary electrodes and circuits, you use it for PCB copper
etching, when finished the job, press on a button and it will automatically
perform electrolysis to recover the etched copper. You can use it for a long
time without even adding new Ferric Chloride. I think many Hobbyist or
experimenter will buy if it is commercially available.   :-)

John


>I saw a discussion that started last week about PCB fabrication.
>One of the messages said that the useful life of Ferric Chloride could be
>extended
>by performing electrolysis on the solution to recover etched copper.
>
>I have tried this and it works. I think that the cathode should be copper
>and that the anode should be non-cuprous to prevent a simple transfer of
>copper from anode to cathode.
>
>The outcome of all this is that it removes the issue of diposal of used
>Ferric Chloride at least for a while as it now lasts for ages.
>
>Hope this is useful to someone!
>
>Alan


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