I’ll just throw my opinion out there it just sounds like everybody’s trying to cover up for the big people. We all know what the problem is right now. Why are you people not buying gas from somebody that has their own refinery that can fractionate what we need? Because there is somebody out there selling it right now that has that exact description
Just really frustrated somebody has built something to cater to our industry. Not to try and treat us like a red-headed stepchild
No one knows what the problem is now. That’s why there are so many suggestions and opinions about the matter.
A supplier has their own refinery where they fraction exactly what you need. That would be awesome to see. I wonder where it’s located.
Shhh 
Everybody knows what the problem is, you’re selling their gas so of course you throw shade…
It’s time the world knew, and we started taking care of each other. It’s really so simple a simpleton could figure it out quick like!
I’m only at like post 100 but yeah we saw neopentane in a SolventDirect COA and I began thinking it’s the culprit too.
I’ve been trying to convince BelCosta to test for both propylene and neopentane. I’ve been behind on talking to other labs about it. They need to be proactive on this because we’ve brought it to their attention from multiple angles.
Weird
Its a new phenomena?
Can you call me Pickle? I have that pump for you and will be in pdx shortly i have maybe work opp for ya
There is always neopentane in n-butane.
considering the even odd gambit would you consider iso-butane
3 1/2 ?
I’ve been listening…takes me a while.
You have COA’s pre-pandemic to backup the statement that these hydrocarbons always contain neo?
Im just curious.
This IS going to affect all volatile operators once labs run our of their old gas batches.
I am eventually going to have to solve this issue for my larger clients, one way or another.
Anyone test their final extract, pre purge, for neopentane?
Curious if there are detectable levels left, pre and post purge.
I still have the tank it isn’t going anywhere. I know there’s is benzene in it so it don’t really care to jump through hoops to prove it. My kushco rep ghosted me after called him out about the butane and saying others are having the same issue. They left a whole shit pile of pretty empty stainless tanks as well that I never paid a deposit on which tells you how much they want to reach out to me.
I have proved beyond any reasonable doubt to myself that the tank has benzene in it at an amount that is problematic if you still would like to test to confirm you are free too. All I really care about now is the fast crash chalk. I can work around it pretty damn well now but it’s still annoying af and I would love to know if there is some contaminant in my butane. But if you want to get to the bottom of that all you need do is pull any new tank from any supplier pretty much now and get to work. Nothing special about my tanks, it took 8+ months for everyone else to get the quick crash issue but it appears to be coast to coast at this point. I can tell you we will never find the contaminant if we keep bouncing back to the topic of not needing to test for things we don’t expect to be there.
I would absolutely pay more money for the tanks to be tested more thoroughly but I feel I fundamentally disagree with the though process of what should be tested for and how it’s reported. @johnbigoilco makes a great point. I don’t bring mystery shit into my lab. If something has a contaminant it came from the material, vessel, tool, solvent or sabotage and the solvent and material are the two in high enough quantities to be far more likely to contaminate batches of my scale. The solvents I use should be tested for the solvents I am tested for. Any that are miscible anyways.
I don’t know if this is related but I’ve had a hell of a time purging HTE. Days of excessive heat and vac and butane comes back higher? Anyone else have that issue in the HTE from quick crash jars?
@Dukejohnson. I’m going to reply on the benzene thread to keep this thread on track.
For others, here’s the link.
maybe a GC headspace of whatever is coming off would give clues?
The cylinders should be vacuumed prior to filling. Even if they were just vented and not vacuumed, the head space would be residual solvent + any inert gas used to increase delivery pressure, both free of anything but trace amounts of problematic molecules.
When we test, the sample is introduced to the GC column in liquid phase, where it vaporizes before it hits the FID. The column is constantly flushed with low flow of UHP helium to keep it clean.
OP have u tried cleaning the gas w 13x beads instead 3a? Or maybe combo of both some the other guys said it fixes the issues
@Cannachem asked about historic / pre-covid neopentane levels. I went back to the storage area and dug out Nbut analyses from 2019 and 2020. Here are quarterly averages of neopentane content in bulk deliveries we received.
High=.0839, low=.0430
Q1: .0812%
Q2: .0540
Q3: .0495
Q4: .0545
High=.1041, low=.0299
Q1: .0596
Q2: .0770
Q3: .0727
Q3: .0846
Thats the data that proves your point @GasGuy-QEG.
At least we know neo is not at immediate fault.
Per records at keast.
We’ve repeatedly tested our unpurged extracts for solvents and have yet to see anything strange besides high butane ppm. Benzene has been non-detect through all of this for us. We are about to test our solvent directly for benzene, prior to actually extracting with it.
What was propylene at during the same time frame?