Why is it the general consensus that one should use denatured alcohol for their dry ice slurry and not propylene glycol? I feel like PG would certainly have some advantages over DA, namely not bubbling over and flooding my workspace
Just use less alcohol
Or get a larger vessel so it doesn’t overflow.
At least these were my solutions haha
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Might be that propylene glycol freezes at -59c, and dry ice is -78.5c. Lots of people use acetone or isopropyl as well, not just denatured.
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I see there’s some PG’s out there rated to -100
Denatured alcohol is the way to go. The less viscous your chilling liquid is, the greater its ability to transfer heat. PG is only gonna get thicker as you get colder.
What form of dry ice do you get?
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Why do people use denatured over IPA?
From the simple search I did denatured alcohol is more dangerous to inhale.
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Usually 3/8th pellets. I’m getting better at not making a mess with it, another benefit with pg tho would be that I could keep it in an unsealed container (ie. Trash can) indefinitely without it evaporating on me
Are you submerging a coil in this fluid?
Cheaper (maybe, haven’t checked) and more available.
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Cost and availability, I would imagine. That is good to know though
Indeed, two stainless coils
Are you in a facility or you just doin this yourself
If u don’t have to worry about compliance, get one of those big Gatorade water dispenser coolers.
It has a spigot on the bottom, you can easily transfer alcohol into a container that can be closed.
Or what do the coils look like.
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I use 99% IPA and not much evaporates. I use it for my coil that’s submerged in a round cooler and my 4x36 sleeved dewax column.
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LOL that’s exactly what I am using and how I do it. That’s also why I would never use something thick like PG.
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If it works, it works 
I have 1/2 recovery lines, kept over flowing my Gatorade cooler, so now I’m back to big trash can tek lol
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Lol not bad. Honestly tho I would still recommend alcohol. Maybe buy one of those cheap mag drive aquarium pumps to move as much of the alcohol back to a drum.
Youll be losing a lot of cold with that setup tho. You could stick that trash can into one of those rolling garbage bins and filling the gaps with expanding foam like what’s used for boat hulls.
It would make tipping the trash can to pour out your alcohol a bit easier. If you didn’t want to use an aquarium pump.
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Lol I did that actually, the expansion foam and the alcohol vapors/alcohol liquid were not friends. This kflex stuff is expensive, but it’s 2" thick and works great
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Lol that’s hella funny you’ve already tried.
I’m still not sure pg is the right choice, but I also don’t know if an aquarium pump would be able able move cold ethanol.
None of the alcohols are good to inhale in large amounts or long term. The good news is when they are really cold, the evaporate less. Keeping things covered will help, too.
Isopropyl is still more toxic than ethanol, but less so than most denaturants. CDA 12A, aka 710 Solution is likely less toxic to inhale vs regular ol denatured alcohol that usually has a lot of methanol in it. Still don’t want to be huffing heptane though. Good ventilation, prevention of evaporation, and PPE should always be used.
Could always use old terpshine…
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