You make some good points, the model we are using is designed specifically for butane/propane vapor moving. No oil or water makes contact with the compression area. The entire inside of the housing is teflon. I may have made a mistake calling it a liquid ring compressor, it’s actually a ring vane compressor. My apologies! All those are very good points about liquid ring compressors though! I can tell you do your homework. Would love to collaborate on some projects with you!
4 Likes
Arrived at last f $):;;& took 4 months
Coming from china
Now figure out how to see if she does her job oilless
Reason I got this unit is to clean and distill your normal filled witn mercaptan butane
So distill vapor out of 4 tanks in hot water bath the same time treu a tank filled with NAOH water treu a tank with h2o2 treu a
4a mol sieve tube then treu a X-13 sieve tube treu a 0.2um filter to the recovery unit treu a cooled coil 7C
To solvent tank
8 Likes
Ah, nice man.
I’m very interested to hear how this compressor works out.
Do you know the bore X stroke and CFM rating of it?
How many seals separate the upper and lower piston assemblies? The answer to this question along with the quality of the packings used to form the seals will have the biggest impact on ensuring oil-free operation of the upper piston assembly.
The overall deck height looks a little low on the pictured unit for it to be a triple-sealed model but it’s hard to tell. Two seals is the minimum for oil-free operation.
What is the country of origin and power rating of the electric motor?
I have found a big advantage to using these compressors with a VFD to vary the pumping speed at different points is the process versus an on/off contactor.
It sounds like a real headache having to remove the mercaptan from the butane, keep us posted on how that works out.
2 Likes
Cfm is 12
2x seal ptfe
China is origin
Power of electric motor is 5.5kw at 380V
1 Like
Nice. Probably a 3" bore or something close to it.
That is a similar capacity to a Corken 291 which has 2x 3" pistons.
They send theirs with a 10hp motor attached but I think that’s to achieve the highest outlet pressure rating of 350 psi.
I am always suspect of electric motors made in China, best of luck with it.
Yes i know chinees and engines aren t a great combo
But it s supposedly atex and looking at the spare gaskets they gave me 3-4" is about right
Cowell mac s recovery units are placed on some tank trucks by the brand Renault that gave me a little hope
I have a Corken 491 on deck so i can really compare
The price of this unit is a bargain 2000$
FOB i hope this corona disapears asap
For borders open up again
2 Likes
Wow, that’s a great price if the quality is good.
A Corken T291 with the corrosion resistant coating is around $28k here in the US.
I know they are seriously overcharging but in theory they have been in business for a very long time and hopefully have all the kinks worked out with the small details of the design that will not give me any problems as the operating hours build up.
I bit the bullet and paid the cost over chancing the cheaper Chinese route.
It’s too bad the one I had built by a Corken distributor I had to re-align the pulleys and deal with poor quality belts they put on it that squealed right out of the crate. LOL.
How do you like the 491? Looks like it should have between 18-36CFM depending on the RPM.
The 291 I have is not bolted down and will start to shake from the torque of the 10hp motor if I run it much over half speed. It still gets the job done easily, I am still working with only a 12" collection pot while I await my upgrade…
I can see a day very soon where these types of reciprocating pumps become more popular as the scale-up of extraction operations continues. Hopefully the price/quality ratio improves a little bit.
Something I wished I had done is to just buy the compressor and motor from Corken and have my fabricator build the skid specifically for my needs. I think it would have been higher quality that way.
What are you using as a liquid trap on the pump inlet for your 491? I’m using a simple diptube run down into a 3" pipe spool with a tee at the top. Similar to how some cold traps are setup.
2 Likes
The main isseu i have with the 491 is
Heat transfer to the liquid butane
The collection pot is a 70Cm diameter jacketed 240 L tank with a large coil of about 65cm diameter and a brewcoil welded on a 6" endcap wich enters in the middel from the botom
I have supposedly a heat transfer of 36 kw on the liquid this way
But even at 50C i am not capable of keeping pressure around 45psi (100% butane) all the time with the Corken running
As a liquid trap i have a pall ss sintered filter that catches a little liquid some times but i have a very big mol sieve 25 Kg of 4a
3 Likes
Hey man did you get the compressor up and running?
I’m very interested to hear if it’s quality compared to the real Corken or not. I might need a 491 soon.
I haven’t contacted Cowell Machinery on Alibaba yet but I’m hoping they can make a triple-sealed model. For anyone wondering, search for Cowell Machine Lpg compressor on Alibaba or click THIS link.
@Roguelab if you are running 100% n-butane and you are getting it up to 45psi, which I assume happens when it’s full and you have maximum liquid in contact with your coils then declines as the level drops and there’s less liquid in contact with the coils, that means you’re getting the solution up to an actual temperature of about 43C (109F).
If you have it set at 50C and there is some small loses to the hoses and radiation to the environment then it seems like you are probably doing a good job getting all 36kw into the solution.
Since you are setting up a system to remove mercaptan do you have the possibility of switching your gas over to propane? That will be the easiest way to increase recovery rate IMO and also comes with other benefits.
1 Like
Hey man, I’m thinking maybe you didn’t see my last post so I’m bumping this thread again.
How is the Cowell pump working out?
2 Likes
Not it s meant to be setup in Afrika but deu to corona everything is delayed
2 Likes
Lol, damn man, you’re making oil in Africa???
I want to ask more questions about that but I know when to keep my mouth shut.
Let us know when you get it setup.
2 Likes
Yeah just got confirmed that Lebanon has legelized by law and that place has some gorgeous grows
Eager to have one setup over there
6 Likes
@Roguelab I see you’ve posted today so I’ll assume you weren’t vaporized in the explosion in Beirut yesterday!
Has the explosion effected your plans to setup a lab there?
Do they only have indoor grows there or is there outdoor as well?
Do you need to setup a C1D1 enclosure and have all UL listed equipment like in the US and other places?
1 Like
agreed hope all is well