[cacondor]

Abalone shell dust is my bane. I work abalone shell wet and DRY. I want to devise a way to treat the dust that is all around my working environment to render it too heavy to rise again as dust.
  So far, I have used my viewing scope to study the dust particles, dry, wetted with water and wetted with water and a wetting agent designed to spread the spray over a shiny or nonwettable surface.  Now I want to mix in something that will bind with the calcium carbonate dust and make it heavier so it doesn't act as a very small dust particle. I want to spray water and something added to coat the dust. Water wets it and then dries out back to dust. The wetting agent made from coconut spreads the water over the dust. The dust naturally can resist water absorption as to my experiments. the toxic properties are not just the calcium carbonate irritation, but the protein used by the abalone to bind the calcium carbonate layers to each other. It's like ply wood construction. Layers of a special form of calcium carbonate with a chitin or proteinaceous binder. The dust created by my sawing and dry grinding is small in size and very dangerous to breathe. I must find a way to treat my work area with a spray that knocks out the dust and "binds it" so it cannot rise easily into the air and becomes bigger so as to not pass thru a breathing mask.    Thanks for any ideas.

[cacondor]

I want to render calcium carbonate dust, with associated organic compounds, altered to suit my needs of health and safety.

  The idea is to coat it with something added to water and spreader to gum it up, fatten it, rubberize it, but something safe to spray.  Maybe lime juice and sugar water witH the coconut spreader for penetration. The idea-is to treat work areas to mitigate residual amounts of ambient shell dusts. Vacuuming, mopping, or dusting in all forms is unacceptable. There is a treatable solution to this ubiquitous problem.   How to treat shell dust to render it harmless.

  Thanks for ideas,
  Willie

[Enthalpy]

Welcome, cacondor!

What would you think of building a waterfall that flows gently along your wall(s)? Without any added compound, just water that traps the dust away. Somewhere, say in calm pools close to the receiving pool at the wall's bottom, you let the dust sediment if it's gross enough to do it quickly, or you filter the dust, and you reinject the water at the wall's top.

The waterfall walls I saw were reasonably silent. They make the air damper and cooler, which is an advantage or a drawback depending on where you work.

Rotating disks do a similar job, draw less power and are more silent, but you may need big ones. Illustration, though or a different purpose, there
https://www.chemicalforums.com/index.php?topic=57335.msg299467#msg299467
for the atmosphere, you don't need a shell. Built smaller, the thing is sold against tobacco smoke.

Other processes exist. For instance at coal power plants, fumes are extracted by electrostatic filters.

And of course, you can use a fume hood, but they may well be too small, too noisy, and too quickly blocked.

[cacondor]

I found something that is working to trap the dust. I have a hand spray bottle with water, coconut oil spreader and white glue. I spray any film of shell dust and after the liquid dries the dust is no longer a problem. White glue turned out to be the ingredient I was looking for. this dried film can then be wet wiped or mopped.