From my experience running popes I typically ran a 6 inch stainless pope for the 1st cut to remove bad terps and to get the best finished product I would run the final cut in a 2 inch jacketed pope for best clarity and potency. I am curious to see if anybody in the community is able to produce a nice yellow distillate only using a 6 inch stainless pope with good potency. Whenever I run the 6 inch pope for final cut I’m only able top produce a amberish color final product. I even tried running a diffusion pump on the 6 inch so that I can pull a better fraction with lower vac level. If anyone can produce nice yellow distillate with a 6 inch stainless pope I would love to hear what parameters you are running at. Thanks for any insight
Final cut parameters on 6 inch STAINLESS pope
body temp 105-110C
internal condenser 65C
rpm of wipers 55-60
vac level 250-290 mtorr
Temps are different from stainless to glass IMO because stainless retains heat a lot more therefore I have to run at lower temps
I have a 6" glass pope, I only use it for the deterp first pass though, then 2nd pass in a 2" unit for quality distillate. This is only because I don’t have a diffusion pump for the pope yet. I generally deterp around 105 degrees at 200-250 mtorr, which generally removes 6-10% of crude weight as terps. When I bring the temperature up to 110-115, I start seeing distillate flowing out with my terps. My guess is that you will need deeper vacuum, or try a lower temperature and slower feed speed. I generally feed around 2.5 kg/hr. Are you achieving that vacuum level with or without a diffusion pump? Also, I’ve always wondered why the body temperature on the pope is so low? On my other system I would deterp at 150-160. I just figured my thermocouple was out of calibration or something.
So you have never tried a final pass on your 6 inch? Like I said in the past I have done it the same way you are currently finishing run with a 2 inch pope and get great results but I don’t have 2 inch anymore. I understand its science whether is a 2",4’,6" it still works the same its about temp and separation but I just can seem to get a good finished product with just the 6" machine
Old thread but this may be helpful for those digging. The Pope Controller (Yokogawa) I was running was anywhere from 30 to 50 degrees out when compared to an identical reference thermocouple. Our run temps were similar to the numbers you referenced (100-115c) on evap, but in reality we were at 150c+ on the body.
Get another measurement system going and don’t just blindly trust your controller if the numbers don’t add up to what the nomograph says.
Even now with it corrected, the head unit is set at 195.0c (reading 195.0c), my upper reference is measuring 171.9c, and lower at 179.1c at 380mtorr on a first pass.
Edit: Ah - assuming the controller was broken? It was an electronic heating element system and digital controller. The issue was with the digital controller, and not the heaters or chillers.
