It may be moisture related is all I can say. i just froze up during a run and the fritted disk was clogged with frozen moisture.
You have a 4" spool with what micron sintered disc?
What size line is your inlet line and your outlet line for your crc?
Are you using papers?
What media are you using, in what depths, in what order?
Are you noticing before the pressure gets that high in the collection that a foam seems to come out of your crc?
Sounds like exactly what we were dealing with when we had issues.
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First thing to help is fix the issues is to run cold columns along with cold solvent. I know this may not be an option for some so what I’ve been doing is using 2 UltraClear granule sizes on top of the crc. I use the biggest size they offer at the very top which is fish tank pebble size granules and then A fine granule UltraClear under that. The UltraClear being granular and staged that way takes way more effort to blind than the DE. Clay will blind right away, DE is a lil more resistant but will also blind, UltraClear staged down has been working better at fighting off the blinding. However it’s really the fats that are causing the problem so the easiest solution is to run as cold as possible to avoid picking those up
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or you could utilize a membrane
Are there peer reviewed membranes that are suitable for butane?
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nothing ive personally found but i know its gotta be possible
Clogs stink, I made a mistake recently of putting a 1.5 fritted against a small orifice. It froze and I kept hitting it with nitrogen. Im not supposed to set it up that way but OOPS.
…
butthole is big here, All those valves worked and only lost the gas in the hose.
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Thanks for the detailed questions!
We have .375" going from the dewax into the CRC, and .25" from the CRC to the collection pot. Our entire setup is .25"; we just had the dewax altered when we started having these issues, in hopes of solving them.
In order, we have:
-Inlet
- Celite (3" or more right now)
- 16 um filter paper
- B80 (several cups; changed each run (3x 5lb columns)
- 8 um filter paper
- 1 um sintered disc (swapped with a five um; we have two CRC columns in rotation to help switch between runs faster)
Not at all to the foam, for better or worse. Flow just slows and then stops. Once the pressure gets up there (20-40 PSI) the flow increases very quickly, and can even get to be “too” fast.
I have noticed some stuff in the collection pot towards the ends of the runs, though. I think what might be happening is the fats go into solution under pressure, which breaks down the clog. And then as the pressure gets relieved, they come out of solution.
Moisture is not a concern; it’s the first thing we tried. We dry all the trim for long periods of time in a sealed, hot, and dehumidified room. We also have color-changing molecular sieve beads and keep an eye on them; I don’t think moisture is the issue.
I just tried to get it a little colder. Our chiller caps out at -25C, but it’s been set to -15C for a while instead (as it doesn’t like being at capacity all the time). I hope that small difference means we pick up less fats to begin with.
Thank you for the suggestion with the granules! I’m suddenly kinda hopeful that maybe with a colder run we have better results; we’d been running at -15 without issues for so long that I hadn’t really considered it might be that. If it isn’t, I guess we can build a longer CRC spool and try those UltraClear granules in stages. What do you think of putting small metal springs in the dewax chamber? I’m wondering if increasing the available surface area for the fats to stick to might make a difference.
The next level just to make a sintered filter easily to solve the clog problem.
Now we have V3.0 Sintered Filter Hope
Everybody will enjoy.
Fats going into solution under pressure is interesting/ I know when I used to open blast it was always golden and clear as can be.
Just for the record, flipping the disk didn’t do jack shit. And I pushed the psi to 25 which was all I was willing to subject said inverted disk to.
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V3.0 is next level,Let us enjoy.
We get better feedback from our previous customers for CRC.