I am running a Labconco Freezone 2.5 Plus on the backend of jacketed reactor.
I am collecting white condensate in the coil area. It is water soluble and has a very potent smell like a mix of EtOH, ammonia, and concentrated terpenes. 2 questions: anyone know what that is and why I am collecting so much of it? What would be a good way of me getting it tested?
What liquid are you using in your bath?
Which bath? In the condenser coil? We are using 190 proof EtOH as our solvent.
Is it reclaimed ethanol? It looks like that because you’re chilling it presumably well below zero that other stuff in your ethanol is precipitating out on the coils.
Yeah reclaimed, so what is the “other stuff” anything in particular or just water?
Terpenes, water, whatever stuff it picks up that has a similar boiling point.
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ethanol is hygroscopic, so its gonna pull water out of the air, especially when its that cold. your bath level should be fully above those coils. Why does your chilling fluid smell like terps? the two systems should be totally seperate
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I would assume he’s making “terp shine” during winterization, reclaiming that, and using it for the coil bath.
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The chilling fluid does not smell like terps, sorry I can explain better. The coils in the picture are a closed loop, and the white condensate is whatever is collecting in that chamber (other than EtOH?). The EtOH that is recovered goes back into circulation as part of the next solvent run. It drains out of that black chamber as cold, clear EtOH out of a hose. However, after running for awhile (5-7 days 24 hrs/day), we get that white buildup in there which has the terp/ammonia/EtoH smell. Does that explain everything better?