Chilling the internal coil on my Solvent Tank

Yes, I built it. The facility was originally a 2 bedroom 2 bath house built inside a 60x40 pole barn, out in the country on 5 acres. The front 40x40 was the house and the remaining 20x40 was 4 horse stalls. It was built outside any city limits and built without permits. It was a cobbled-together mess and had been a rental for the last 7 years. It was filthy. We had to scrape the concrete floors to get the dog hair up. We gutted the house and built the lab. All the pics I have are from last year and like everything, it’s evolved since then. I post some fresh pics tomorrow. Here’s a few from the beginning.

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Here’s a few from the end of construction.

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That’s what I’m saying…

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Bruh!!! That’s an amazing renovation! Really nice work.

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Mind Blown

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Wanna explain your thought process on the hot water lines here?

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You will not condense all your butane. The boiling point (condensation point) of n-butane is -1C = 30.2F

The boiling point of propane is -44C = -47.2F

If you want to condense all your butane in theory you must be at the boiling point. If you want to condense all your butane in reality you need to sub cool at least 10-20C below the boiling point of the solvent (as a rule of thumb).

In my opinion, if you have no solvent cooling coil on the outlet of your pump (if you’re running active) before it reaches the solvent holding tank (where your coil is)—then use the most powerful chiller you have for the process at the cooling coil and make sure it can operate at temperatures below -10C.

If your chiller is shit, add a dry ice coil.

Edit: grammar

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Wowwwwwwwweeweweeeewwwoww! That’s gr8 pls tell and show us more when u can! Can you share more details on the booth build in particular too? Materials, cost, etc. love the kitchen. Such an inspiration.

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Beautiful room! looks very compliant!

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The room is 10x12x8. It’s wood studs with 5/8 fire rated Sheetrock with fiberglass reinforced panels (FRP) over it. There are no outlets or ignition sources in the room.

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I’m running passive recovery. The heated collection vessel is my energy source to make it move. The chiller is running as a heater in the current layout. I run it at 40c.

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I believe you’re forgetting about pressure when it comes to condensation. Most gas becomes a liquid under pressure, regardless of temperature, if the pressure is high enough. But if the system is passive then it will be difficult to achieve the temp/pressure ratio needed for speedy recovery.

So my second tip would be to get a KNF diaphragm pump, they are hermetically sealed, so it can be right there with the rig; providing the power source from another room. This pump can’t get much over 30 psi, but that’s not an issue if your temps are proper.

Are you running passive for safety? Why no recovery pump.

I have a TRS21, but I got sick of listening to it. Passive is very peaceful. I’m not trying to set any records on fastest recovery. I had the solvent tank with the cooling coil and wondered if I could speed things up a little more without spending any real money. My whole approach has been keep it cheap and make safely.

I may abandon the whole cooling coil idea in favor of a lid with sight glasses and just a dip tube.

This was more curiosity in making the most of the recovery tank I bought.

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Reread “theory” and “practice” in bold.

Edit: but you are correct that condensation temps change under pressure

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The knf pumps are super quiet, easy to hear things and speak standing right next to it. It’s oil-less because of the diaphragm setup. It’s not fast, like at all, but it works forever, mine has hundreds and hundreds of hours of run time one still working like day one.

Totally, no argument here, and we’re talking about sliding scale, two part dynamics, people have PhDs in this stuff. I’m not one of them, lol.

What you pointed out is an important part of the total equation.

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Yeah I struggled with that too…

You should flow from the bottom to the top. Through the jacket base and then into the bottom port of the collection jacket.

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