Molecular Sieve Size??

3a is better than 4a I believe. And this 13x stuff is supposed to be the beezkneez

5 Likes

Whatā€™s this 13x stuff?

And I did read right, stick w my 3a?

Yes stay with the 3a. Iā€™m going to use just 3a and the 13x. I get too much moisture from frozen runs

2 Likes

U donā€™t use the jacket right is why? I may be thinking wrong person

To heat? I only used that when I was wanting to dry it out a little bit. I donā€™t think that jacket can get hot enough to dry them out properly

To freeze the material?

I remember someone telling me they just ran cold solvent,ā€¦

I run about 300 LB of live material every week and have a single 3" x 18" column filled with 4a beads. Never had any moisture issues, and change the beads maybe once every 2 or 3 months? I let the material soak in butane for 5 minutes surrounded constantly by dry ice. I think at those temperatures the solubility of ice in butane is pretty much zero.

5 Likes

I donā€™t have a jacketed material column, no. I stall my dewax. But I run a bunch of frozen material. I just smash it, load it, and run it. But I do a bunch of frozen runs and that takes moisture over so fast

3 Likes

I started running my standard live this way but without 2nd stage just fast w cold solventā€¦ Think Iā€™m running into same issueā€¦would adding more length to my sieve keep this out more? Maybe double the sizeā€¦or is there some limitation Iā€™m not factoring inā€¦ Trying not to dump unless have toā€¦ My color lil darker latelyā€¦i been doing more recover all and using over and overā€¦I regenerate sieve often

That sounds a little bit off. @Photon_noir says his can go a week tops. And they have a bit more to them than 4a.

How cold is the solvent your putting in? Is your material column jacketed? Adding more length to the sieve would result in more drying.

4A 8x12 Molecular Sieve
is an alkali metal alumino-silicate in the spherical form. It is the sodium form of the Type A crystal structure with an effective pore opening of 4ƅ. It will adsorb molecules such as oxygen, nitrogen, carbon dioxide and straight chain hydrocarbons. Aromatics and branched chain hydrocarbons will not be adsorbed.

Aromatics are not absorbedā€¦

@StoneD scroll up to what @Killa12345 and I are thinking about doing. Do the 3a for the first half and then fill it up with the 13x. I am going to see what help carbon has, if any.

3 Likes

im actually thinking of running with this idea with 3x individual 3x8" spools combined. First chamber 3a, second chamber 4a, then 13x. All seperated by screened gaskets. We can all start to stage our sieves with any combo we want. This seems to be the same thing we can do with the BHO clear tech too.

Im actually rigging something together here for some runs this week if i ever slow down with the day job.

6 Likes

3A adsorbs molecules below 3 angstrom, 4A adsorbs below 4 angstrom. If 4A doesnā€™t adsorb aromatics neither will 3A

5 Likes

I said I never ran my sieve on a live resin (fresh frozen) system, so I am guessing the longevity. The truth is if one engineers the lines effectively and keeps everything cold enough, there should be no more water in a live system than a dry system, so it is plausible that @terpenoidā€™s sieve can function that long without issues. Remember that live material is way heavier than dry, too.

6 Likes

@Photon_noir but dont you get moisture from the cold or is that just on the outside of the spool cause its exposed to air. I always assumed what the outside of my spools looked like during extractionā€¦The inside of my spools look like. But the inside is under vacuum and the outside is not. Im i wrong here?

i know your practically one of the people that invented these things.

5 Likes

I misquoted your ā€œguesstimateā€ on how they would last. Should have stated that better. But, I also donā€™t think they can last that long. Mine donā€™t last anywhere close. All my frozen runs are stalled in a dewax chamber and all the moisture would be frozen behind, as well. I still find it making its way over.

7 Likes

Yes, when cold metal is exposed to air (which contains water vapor) the humidity will condense as liquid water or ice, depending on the temperature. When vacuum is strong enough (generally 500 microns or less at room temperature, but it can be higher pressure at lower temperatures), there is no moisulture present to condense. So if you prechill the columns to -60Ā°C or so while under vacuum, and then release vacuum and open them to quickly load them with very frozen fresh herb (-60Ā°C), then seal them up and pull vacuum again, you will get very little condensation inside the wallsā€¦ and all that condensation will be super cold ice.

When you freeze moisture out of a sealed airspace, it actually creates a partial vacuum, because water vapor is part of the air pressure. When that water is cold enough to stay frozen solid (again, around -60Ā°C to accomodate for melting point depression by dissolved salts and such in the cellular water of the plant matter), even under stronger vacuum, the butane is not hydrophilic enough to dissolve the iceā€¦ so ultimately very little water is picked up by the butane. :blush:

8 Likes

No problem. Iā€™d have to go over your entire process to know where the culprit(s) are for all that water pickup.

Thereā€™s a multitude of things that could cause it. The location of my extract equipment (in a shed, basically outside), and the general atmosphere of my location. High humidity high desert. I get moisture buildup in my chiller bath on my julabo fw95, I almost always see a bit of condensation buildup on my inner coil of my tank after a few frozen runs. I inject at -75 regularly and with my frozen runs. Frozen runs go into a separate dewax chamber. I have a feeling after verbalizing it, that itā€™s potentially my environment.

4 Likes