If one of the people who are saying that h2o2 can convert n-butane to Iso-butane would care to share the mechanics of how that reaction would go down it would be helpful. I don’t see how h2o2 could cause that sort of rearrangement. If anything the conversion would be to maleic acid or some other carboxylic product. But even that reaction is only really feasible in vapor phase with an excess of water vapor and oxygen. It wouldn’t be happening in the liquid phase.
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I didn’t say that the reaction cannot happen in either of those solvents. I said the issue is not caused by those solvents inherently.
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In a refinery, your LPG comes right off the very top of your main crude distillation column. It then goes downstream to further separation for your more pure cuts.
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Conversion of n-butane to isobutane would have to occur via radical attack with rearrangement to the tertiary carbocation.
Not commenting on the likelihood of the reaction happening . Just the theory of the mechanism.
ETA: I don’t think it’s likely
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This is the part I’m interested in.
Dehydrogenation
Butane comes from natural gas, which is colorless, odorless, and shapeless in its natural form. … Besides petroleum, the gas also needs to be separated from the water through machinery at the surface. This is done by a dehydration process, either through absorption or adsorption.
Ismerization
The process is started with n-butane isomerization to produce isobutane by using acid catalyst, i.e., Pt/Cl–Al2O3, Pt/H–Zeolite. Then, the isobutane is reacted with 2-butene to become alkylate by using sulfuric acid or hydrochloric acid as a catalyst
This is just copy and paste from “how butane is manufactured”
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I’d imagine a considerable amount of heat and pressure are involved as well.
Gas phase or in solution?
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I could have sworn isobutane was originally propane and then it was converted to c4h10.
Edit: nope it’s converted from butane. But it is technically methylpropane. I think that’s why I got confused with was the name.
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They go on to say that absorption is in to a light oil. Is this where our mystery oil comes from?
I’ve noticed our new tanks have a lot more mystery oil than they previously did.
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I believe that’s the grease and oils meant to protect the equipment from damage. I could be way off, but I think I remember it being mentioned that it came from the filling equipment.
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It’s about 3-4x what it used to be.
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I wonder if they are all knowing something and are trying to mitigate it leaving shit behind.
Regardless of what the contaminant is, I am able to get it to disappear and show no Medusa growth or fast crashing. And this is prior to extraction.
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You’re cleaning the gas pre extraction, correct sir?
My theory from the beginning was “it’s the gas”.
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For this to be an issue other than the gas seems far fetched. For it to be the biomass, seems a stretch as nobody is really using the same nutrients or growing methods. It’s happening with stuff that’s never been sprayed with anything as well as stuff on a regular spray schedule. If it’s h2o2 where is it coming from? Not everyone experiencing the issue is using it.
There’s only one constant I see. N-butane.
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I’d always assumed it was valve lubricant.
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I usually wipe a thin coating of it out of my platter after distilling a new tank. This last time I had a puddle of it.
Something like that or similar.
And yes, cleaning it before extraction and distill
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Has the presence of fine THCa dust all over the labs (either as microcrystals, either sorbed on dust particles) been rulled out ? 
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That is the most far fetched theory so far
Like no.
No.
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Nick…nice piece of work…certainly plenty of hints…or direction to follow up.
If H2O2 is culprit…
why would a simple H20 wash not eliminate the problem:
if preceeded by the “acid wash” step…to ensure R-COOH form…
H2O2 would be gone. The table appended gives one an estimate
of the water-alkane patition coefficient.
regards,
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