What’s up guys. I’ve been getting clogs on my CRC almost every other run. Wanted to see if you guys can help! Yes I am cooking media and I’m getting really confused onto why I keep getting these clogs. I have a 6” CRC column from XD. Let me know what you guys think or maybe what else I can do if I get a clog? What do you do when you clog up? Thanks 
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More info needed. Such as solvent temp going into crc, how you are packing your crc column, size of crc column interns of length, are you using that 6" for only media or material on top, what media/medias are you using, and psi on the column would be helpful
Are you using n2 to push through?
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what he said 
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This was supposed to be with above post
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Gotta filter better before it goes into crc, or make a felt filter.
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What type of felt for hydrocarbon?Polyester? thank you.
Mix your CRC with filtration silica. It will make the flow more flowy
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You need to
- Regularly clean your filter plate
- Have some paper or some felt before your sintered disk to reduce the load bring placed on it
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Sobered disk?!?
This auto-misdirection really is getting out of hand…
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Are you dewaxing? The fats mixed with clay always give me clog issues. I usually put a killa plate with celite to prefilter my solution down to 1 micron and remove most fats before going into the clay spool. Adding a celite/de cake on top as the first layer in your crc will also work
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Those ptfe sheets cut to 6 inch. Held in place with retention ring. 2 inches of celite 545 on that and then powders. My 6 inch has never clogged never need to exceed 50 psi and flow rates are honestly too fast…
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I’m telling y’all this W1 is tight, it’s got crystalline silica in it with the bentonite.
@spdking is correct that silica is going to make the powder more “flowy”—at least as far as I’ve experienced.
My stack goes like this:
BVV 5 micron sintered disc with Viton O-Ring
W1 (1 cup)
Celite 545 (1 cup)
Filter Plate Clamp
Retention Ring
6 Micron Whatman Filter Paper
5 Micron @Killa12345 disc
Filter Plate Clamp
Retention Ring
2 Micron Filter Paper
1 Micron disc
The material column is jacketed 6x48. The crc column is 6x36 dewax-sleeved spool (typically not used) with a 6” spool added to accommodate powders.
70/30 n-Butane/Propane @ -40C, jacket at same temp. Push through at 50-75psi with nitrogen.
Takes about 10minutes to push 40 - 50 lbs of Solvent over
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@Waxplug1 Instead of DE can I use AA? We have a bunch laying around, and I would like to use it up.
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If you’re not pre-wetting your media to ensure even, unobstructed flow (and to rinse out any submitting dust particles) before introducing your solution then both clogging and channeling are very likely to occur.
Over packing will also lead to clogging, especially when using a lot of clay.
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My experience and past reading contradicts the packing, usually the tighter the better.
And not pre-wetting doesn’t usually cause issues either, a few members pack the powders directly under their materials.
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Wetting the column creates a far more even and secure packing than any amount of physical effort you could attempt to impose upon a bunch of loose dry powder. I agree with you fundamentally that you need a tight pack for a good run, and I believe that rinsing your media is the best way to achieve it. Failure to rinse the media inside the column is also a pretty good way to end up with submicron contaminants in your oil. Furthermore, if there are other issues causing clogging (like a dirty sintered disc, unbaked/clumpy media, over packing, poor vacuum etc) you will know the column is bad and needs to be repacked before you ever put your valuable oil inside.
Rinsing media to observe proper flow and establish a sufficient solvent reservoir is 70 year old chromatography protocol that should not be ignored.
If the OP is having issues with every run and ISNT prewetting and IS packing tight I would bet rinsing the column will solve his issues with the first try.
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I think the vast majority of people are not following this protocol when running crc.
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In fact, with granular media it specifically says not to pre-wet