So I have decided to make the mighty safe jump to purchasing a rotovap. From my research, it seems it a pretty straight forward method of solvent extraction. You know, heat it up through conduction, condense it with a cold trap, hopefully dont unsuspectingly huff fumes.
What are some of the concerns I have you may ask?
Well how do i avoid inhaling any bleed off of the fumes and how efficient is it extracting ethanol solvent? I decided to approach the winterization/ extraction process to make crude oil with ethanol as a solvent. Is it as simple as boiling the solvent out and recondensing (which also, what temperature does EtOH condense at? I know it evaporates at 78ish). Another concern is the area I work isnt as ventilated as i’d like, only one window which my whole lab is positioned infront of (with multiple fans blowing it out).
So I have some concerns and dont entirely want to drop a few K on something that may or may not solve my panicked, paranoid mind of inhaling EtOH fumes if thats the case. I know it wont be sealed tight but luckily EtOH evaporates in air pretty readily. A good p100 filter will help reduce dangers but; I could use the help.
Make sure to use a WATER ASPIRATOR as your vac, any fumes that make it past your condensers will be pulled into it and mixed with water which is “relatively” safe. Also make sure you have a good enough CHILLER to keep your condensers around at least -5c. Can also set up your chiller and water aspirator outside and run hoses into your setup to make sure all of the vapor that would be produced is out of your breathing space.
That pump will be fine for smaller size rotovaps. What size are you looking to get? for anything smaller than a 5L that should work. The ethanol vapor is not an issue as it will all be contained inside the system, and any that slips by the condenser will end up in the water in the pump.
Making sure that you have an appropriate chiller is important, like @CannabisCupChamp2020 said, being below 0C is necessary to efficiently condense the ethanol that you evaporate off. Depending on what size rotovap you get you can normally find an appropriate chiller being sold along side it, or ask on here once you know what size you are getting. The chiller probably wont be cheap though, depending on what scale you are working at, you could get a rotovap that has a dry ice condenser where you simply load dry ice into it. That creates a bit of CO2 gas, but that can be more easily monitored than the ethanol vapor you are worried about.
I know this chiller.dlsb 5/-30.
I have been making and selling this chiller with many models many years and the price just is 900 USD ( 110V/60Hz).
if you want to know details and buy from me, pls DM me and i will send the quotation to you.
