Unless his system is not rated for nitrogen or he doesn’t have a nitrogen regulator . If you put nitrogen from a bottle into a system only rated for 150psi you could have some serious problems. Nitrogen is of course the best way to go but only if you know what your doing and have a regulator to control the PSI.
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That doesn’t sound right. Sounds like you may have a clog somewhere or a valve closed. But you really should be having someone train you, instead of running into dangerous potentially fatal situations. I see your recovery tank doesn’t even have a gauge on it.
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there is a lot going on here. Your pump will absolutely help pull solvent through your system. This run looks very dangerous to me however. i fuckin hate appions first and foremost. i cant tell if that is a freezer directly behind your tank there but im gonna hope its a dryer or washer that isnt in use right now. your tank is laying on its side, depending on how much solvent is in it, it may not even be touching the liquid syphon. so lets start there on why the system isnt getting solvent. if you wanna give some more detailed pictures i could potentially be more help. in all reality if you want someone to talk to let me know and ill take some time out to go through some things with you… this entire situation is kinda haphazard in my personal opinion, not trying to be a dick, just want you to understand that this is what im seeing. i assume you vacd out the system first, hopefully. i digress, the first thing should be to go ahead and kick on the pump just like buddy said up top. if that doesnt get the solvent flowing then you may have potentially formed an ice puck on the inside of your column. first things first, lets get that tank upright and get that pump on.
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sorry for the kinda shitty reply, i hope it helps in anyway. its kinda been a long day.
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What is the temperature of the blue bucket the collection is sitting in?
If everything is too cold the solvent will be stuck. Dipping the collection tank in room temperature water (luke warm) bath will chase your solvent back into the solvent tank.
Or, if you are trying to “pass all the tane through” you might start by uprighting the tank, and removing it from the ice bucket it is in.
From what I gathered, that’s just his empty “recovery” cylinder sitting sideways and he’s using a separate injection tank with with a dip tube since he said his “tane” tank is at 60f. Plus, the “recovery” cylinder he is using only has one port anyway in the photo, which his pumps output is run too. However that still brings up another issue, I’m assuming he didn’t distill his solvent before using it. Other than that I completely agree with what you said. Thats 100% a chest freezer there.
That is a chest freezer?
Freezers have compressors that run cycles, when cycle starts there’s an arc of electricity. Gases collect at low lying points, could easily be an ignition source. Not trying to be whatever but everything I’m seeing is this picture is pretty fucky bud.
I Hopefully you’ve got a gauge and PRV on top of that column. Each individual vessel needs to be able to be isolated and/or vented, for safety reasons… Yes, this includes solvent tanks that never came with a gauge or PRV.
Leaving the ball valve open between material vessel and collection vessel is not enough to qualify it as a single chamber in my books - as the internal contents are very different and can create potential blockages.
You may have a chunk of ice clogging, due to leaving columns packed for too long before a run (or if under vacuum for very long before the run- creating vapor/condensate).
Otherwise, you probably don’t have enough pressure differential between the material vessel and collection vessel. Fluids tend to move from high pressure areas to low pressure areas, until equalized. We tend to keep vapor pressure low/non-existent by chilling the solvent. You can use inert gas or warm solvent vapor to create head pressure at the solvent feed tank.
What is the pressure at each stage throughout this system?
That slanted tank on a plastic bucket is a disaster waiting to happen. Likewise - the chest freezer has already been mentioned.
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Did he blow up?
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Not yet
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Let’s start at the top bro. Is this your first run or have you done this before? If the latter, what are you used to doing on a regular run? Walk us thru your SOP so we know what you know and can fill in the blanks. We are here to give you a hand and keep you safe so if the freezer is plugged in let’s start by unplugging it. If this is inside make sure you have plenty of ventilation or an exhaust system running.
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What did I miss