I just distilled a 22lb blend from @GasGuy-QEG and it was one of the cleanest tanks of gas I have ever distilled.
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An interesting read to this point and I thought I would add two more cents.
My experience with lighter butane is that it has more mystery oil content than 99.95% Instrument Grade and varies considerably more batch to batch.
I’ve found that 99.95% pure and 99.99% pure LPG comes out of the same tank, you are just paying for additional tests and paperwork, as Instrument Grade from Apis Labs in Eugene actually measured 99.99%.
After distillation, our tests showed Instrument Grade to be 99.998% pure with regard to molecules longer than C-4. Distilling 48 lbs of Instrument Grade left a light film on the bottom and walls of the collection vessel, but no droplets.
Some users pull vapor from their tanks instead of liquid, and leave the residue in the tank. As has been noted, it isn’t possible to reliably clean the interior of the tank once it is returned for refill, so one solution is to lease/own your own bottles that are being recycled, so as to take control of that variable.
Because things can still go wrong, go wrong, go wrong…in is yet another reason for pre-distilling the LPG before using it for an extract. If you receive dirty gas, you will immediately know it, before it presents a problem.
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To add a point, lighter fuel suppliers change their formulas depending on season and local, adding yet another variable if you choose to use them.
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“Food Grade” is just a marketing term usually reserved for the small refill cans. It’s just aerosol or refrigerant grade normal/iso/propane.
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@Graywolf - if it isnt very clean does it get clean in 1 distillation? Have you found what mystery oil is other than refrigerant oil?
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Depends on how dirty and your process. Pentane 's boils at around 97F under atmospheric pressure, but its flash point is 57F, so there can be some carry over in the low PPM even at 85F. Especially if your process is under less than atmospheric pressure, so that Pentanes bp is even lower.
If you want to remove it in a single pass, you can polish it with a Vici Metronics gas polishing filter.
Our analysis of mystery oil showed it to be a mixture of longer chain alkanes in the low ppm range and as well as a few green alligator and long neck geese contaminants in the low PPM and the PPB range.
Also note:
9.4.10 n-Butane, Isobutane, and Propane Rated GRAS by FDA (graywolfslair.com)
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Thanks for the link to the “Use Ignitus” thread. Back in Dec '18, GroovyOctopus posted a link on that thread to an MSDS sheet from Puretane. I can’t help but get pissed-off when a supplier misleads potential customers who are not familiar enough with the material being offered to be able to tell the claims are horse shit. Whether you buy gas from us or not, you deserve to know when you are being deceived.
Here’s a copy of the link from the other thread: https://butanesource.com/files/msds/puretane-msds.pdf. Go ahead and hit the link, opening in a new tab on your browser. It reports that Puretane butane is 99.9998% butane and 0.0002% isobutane. That translates to 2 ppm isobutane. That purity of butane CANNOT be made on a production scale, if at all. Even though there was no analysis accompanying the MSDS, the reference to 99.9898% pure butane is simply fraudulent. But, that’s not the end of the scam.
Look at the tab on that link and see the actual link being displayed. The link is titled "Aeropres 17 (A-17). The MSDS didn’t even come from Puretane. Aeropres produces hydrocarbons for use as aerosol propellants. As of this writing, they do NOT sell any hydrocarbons into the extraction market. I have no idea how Puretane did it, but it reeks of falsification.
Shame on them.
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So would you say the green alligators or the long neck geese pose the greatest health risk? I would assume the alligators would be more dangerous.
Seems like there is always going to be some contaminants, whether it be actual oil from manufacturing and processing cans or cylinders, or from alkanes similar to butane that were not fractioned out during production. Either way, thanks for the links to your info!
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Ostensibly the alligators, but grandmother’s long neck geese use to leave bruise marks on our butts as kids.
There is no absolute zero in chemistry, only ppm, ppb, ppt, etc. Analysis of drinking water and mother’s milk are good examples, where they are typically at low enough levels as to not pose a health risk.
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So should I distill n-butane from a a major gas supplier or would that be pure ? … and how about cans that say 5 to 11 times distilled … seems like one more distill shouldn’t be needed if it’s already been done 5-11 times no ? If not Are any canned brands ok to use without pre distilling ? I’m trying to work smarter not harder
I’m not sure how you missed it but you should distill everything…why risk end product
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So is the pentane bad? and how?The tanks have oil in them to make valves work. you dont want that in your product. Distilling is necessary unless you are doing open blasting and then its all fucked up but its beter than nothing.
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Will start distilling 
Everything
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Pentane is a Class 3 solvent, same as butane, so limited to 5000 ppm, but is harder to remove than butane because of its higher boiling point. You can also taste it under 100 ppm, so it needs to be lower than that for flavor.
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Thank you
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youll see= it varies by batsh of hydrocarbon but im sure youll run across dirty stuff. I suggest running the first tank upside down if it doesnt have a diptube. Youll see nasty stuff from some tanks, sometimes particulate and sometime oils. If you are using canned hydrocarbons like whip it they are also clean sometimes and other times not as clean.
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If you put a condenser inline after your solvent tank and set it to like 60f it would serve to condense a majority of the heavier components and reduce codistillation of said heavier components… like breakingdabs tek
Shouldn’t need to recover more than one time.
Throwing some activated carbon in the solvent tank prior to trying to clean it up might help.
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Has any one tested there butane ( before or after distilling ) for ppm contaminates ?
Just clean your tane please
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