Here is my procedure:
Prep and freeze material
Break dry ice and assemble unit
Fill with material, cap unit
Pull vac on unit
Inject butane approximately 6 cans
Allow to sit while I assemble hot plate and baine Marie
Open valve and use compressed air to push fluid out of unit
Simmer yields until thick
Purge under vacuum 48 hours flipping halfway through
I’d recommend not using a hotplate, saw one cause an explosion outdoors when it kicked on with a Pyrex on it.
Air?
Please don’t.
N2 (or die!)
I prefer pure O2 for my pressure assists since I can get my health insurance to pay for it.
Just be aware you’re making a nice little bomb everytime you do that.
Does your insurance company require you to use a standardized source of ignition, or can you use whatever you have on hand?
Would a hot plate do?
Haha yeah compressed air is what BVV suggested as an option for using with open blasting, N2 for closed loop.
Saving up right now to get the closed column conversion kit in order to close the loop and do passive recover of gas, to get a nitrogen tank and regulator for gas assist and looking to swap out the hinge clamps for high pressures.
I’m hoping to work out some of the kinks first and figure out why it’s backing up and not releasing all the BHO and impacting yields before investing more into the system.
I thought this is the absolute wrong advice and potentially explosive.
I must be tripping but doesn’t by adding oxygen to a gas you allowing it to ignite easier?
I always thought that’s why we vacuum all the air out of our systems. What am I missing here??
Is this on their website or did a rep give you this information?
If it was running fine up until you put on that crc column, it stands to reason that could be your issue. It might be silly for me to ask but have you thoroughly cleaned your setup and connections?
No Oxidizer, no fire.
Need air/fuel between LEL & UEL, AND you need a source of ignition.
Given Static electricity ⚡️, you’ve potentially got one handy any time you play this game.
Use one of these bad boys for purging, then you can use the same gas for blasting that you use for heating and save even more money. Bonus points if the gas is odorized so you can make that straight funky fire.
This was they said on the website, can be used with nitrogen or compressed air if open blasting. Introducing air certainly isn’t wise but neither is working above a bath of boiling hydrocarbons in general.
It’s hard to say exactly what’s affecting it, this weekend I swapped out to a new filter and it seemed have cleared the CRC cartridge but was retaining fluid in the material column which was still being chilled. It’s hard for me tell if it is a filter clogging issue or if the fluid is condensing along the column walls and potentially tunnelling with the air passing through. I clean all debris out of the column before starting a new run.
My actual recommendation would be adding a valve (and pressure gauge and PRV) between your CRC and soaking column so your cold solvent isn’t sitting on top of your media and solidifying fats while you soak, resulting in clogs or poor flow. Are you using granular or powder media?
I am using a powder media prefilled cartridge.
It is definitely possible that you are getting butane to evaporate out of the plant material and condense on the walls of the dry ice jacket, which means you aren’t really losing much if any of your yield to that bit of butane you find when disassembling. If it is a bunch on top of your crc column that would be more indicative of clogs. You could try breaking up the plant material more so it traps less solvent.
You pull a vac on the system, yet you proceed to push with compressed air?
You should probably
Pause all operations until you have a closed loop system and a better understanding
Switch to stainless fittings and high pressure clamps
Grab a stainless solvent tank, so you can distill your butane and stop using cans (you can then use the tank for a vapor push, if you’re not set up for N2 yet)
Ground your system so there’s less chance of blowing yourself up
Just give up and make rosin
Doesn’t look like you followed the “static” link above.
Try this one instead: Dealing with static electricity... MAJOR NO NO
Understand that the kid who posted that thread is dead.
Take this seriously. Because it can be deadly.
Introducing a direct air stream not only adds the oxidizer you need for a pipe bomb, but it also GREATLY increases your chances of static build up. Strong no no on compressed air.
EDIT: I should’ve included that a good buddy of mine used to use compressed air to blow out spent biomass from his extraction columns (pre sock days) and he stopped when he ignited one via static. Thankfully the flamethrower he created via static and residual solvent was outside at the time and not pointed at anybody. Butane likes to go boomy.
From my understanding the vacuum is pulled prior to introducing hydrocarbons so there is no air and more space for fluid/gas until pressure is equal to the propellant can and the column cannot accept more butane.
After soaking a pressurized gas is used to introduce headspace and push the super cold fluid down the column and through the filter.
I’m looking into distilling butane into a tank. If I use a tank and hot water or something to create a positive flow of vapors into the column, and an ice bucket to cause passive condensation into a collection tank - would I need to limit the dry ice jacket halfway through the system or remove the ice at some point during extraction to discourage any vapors from condensing along the jacket walls?
Before proceeding further you need to study the laws of thermodynamics and hydrocarbons under positive and negative atmosphere and why these laws/ specifications are important to a systems operations. This alone will help you solve an issue you’re creating while also giving you insight on what you need to proceed with doing moving forward for both active and passive.
Another spoon shall be instead of using “compressed air” use a clean “lab grade”,(don’t get run of the mill gas with unpredictable qualities)“food grade”, inert gas such as nitrogen or argon to create your positive push to assist in pushing the tane through, with the auxiliary butane tank you can also daisy chain into it and push your tane fully through with the inert gas (create head pressure). This will allow you to push/throttle your tane, carefully though as channeling may occur if crc isn’t packed well. If you haven’t followed thermal dynamics to this point it will be futile against your assist push anyways. As stated earlier you’re adding a oxidizer to a hydrocarbon that was otherwise in a negative atmosphere chamber, once you introduced compressed o2 into your column it immediately started to boil/evaporate your solvent and then condensed back onto the column walls not pushing further into your warmer surface area having crc section. If you’d like a bit of safety precaution to this add a inline ball valve above and below so you can vacuum each section down and close them separately, thus allowing you to open them in sequence allowing for a natural pull through to each section as you fill to equilibrium safely as you proceed from injection to “recovery”(openly shooting into collection, which should also follow thermal dynamics to have a better yield chance, but please do this inside a safe UL listed exhausted area if you dont have a booth/fume hood). But as also suggested please obtain means of knowledge on a closed loop and the additional proper equipment to run one.
Please tell me you atleast have a dual stage recovery vacuum safe for hydrocarbons?
Do you ground yourself and the equipment you’re using?
Are you wearing static proof clothing on a static proof flooring cover?
Is the table, counter grounded?
Is the ancillary equipment for evaporation/ purging UL listed?
Please use PYREX which is borosilicate glass. Not pyrex which is normal lesser quality “silicate glass”. Do not use silicone, whether it’s “platinum cured food grade” or not. Terpenes and hydrocarbons will wear it over short time and leach especially with evaporation/ purging. If you’re weary of Pyrex use a stainless steel container that is grounded while injecting into. Either way ground everything.
if you freeze your column prior to extraction are you doing so with your crc connected or not? (Applies to thermodynamics flow).
I’m also guessing that your tane is not as cold as your column with dry ice which then initiates a slower flow as well or possibly causing stall and evaporation/condensation from hitting the warm crc below with additional o2 pushing in create rapid evap.
surely there’s more but these are just a few things you should be addressing to not only solve these issues but proceed with a safer environment and product.
