Hi all,
In trying to deal with a piece of equipment that I Inherited, we have been sensing (smelling) ethanol vapor. I have looked all over for a good ethanol vapor sensor, but I am not sure which ones would be best to use.
Does anyone have a recommendation for an ethanol vapor sensor? We need it for our extraction room to run by our solvent recovery, as this is where the smell is coming from. Trying to determine the risks/dangers or lack there of.
you can use almost any flammable gas detector (unless they say “single gas”). ideally you want one that you can calibrate for ethanol.
the wall mounted one @RockSteady links is an important addition to the extraction space itself, but if you’re looking to track down a “leak” (source of your ethanol vapor), you’re gonna need one that you carry around.
last time I insisted that I wasn’t going to play without flammable gas detectors, the boss ran out an got a couple of really nice wearable data-logging detectors that could be field calibrated. I didn’t actually bother recalibrating them for ethanol or pentane, but if I was sticking around long term I would have probably calibrated them for the most flammable solvent on site (in this case pentane).
Given your problem you want a Sniffer and as @cyclopath says you carry it around to hunt for the leak. Below is a link for a few sold by McMaster with prices. I think they can find ethanol since they can sniff methanol. You can have them tomorrow if you order by 6pm and you can request AM delivery to have it faster. Or a weld shop locally to you may have them.
If that does not find the leak you can pressurize your system with an inert gas like helium and sniff for it with the right Sniffer. Nobel gas atoms are tiny compared to big hydrocarbon atoms so they find your holes easier. There are also services you can hire to do this for you.
Sensor is calibrated for CH4 not ethanol. If I pulled up the manual I could convert that 41% of LEL to a more accurate guesstimate on how problematic fresh, post centrifuge waste really is. I threw the detector in the trash bag just to get a feel for the problem.
This stuff was easy to set on fire, but actually self extinguished shortly after it hit the floor (yep, it was in my hand when I set it on fire )
lab was at 14C that day, so below the flash point for 190…would not be interested in the same trick at 30C ambient.