when winterizing and filtering has anyone been in a bind and tried going straight to a 1 micron filter (stage 3) to save two days…crude is diluted at a 10 to 1 ratio. Wondering if it will still filter all the fats . For r.s.o.
might be too slow to keep your temperature down where you need it. your fats may redissolve and not actually save you two days.
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Unless you are performing the filtration in a -40F deep freezer, it will be just like @downtheterphole says. The filter will clog up almost instantly reducing your flow rate to next to nothing, and while you are pulling solvent through at like 1 drop every few seconds, the fats and waxes will be redissolving into the alcohol and passing through the filter.
My personal tek is to do a quick warm filter through coffee filters after I let the mixture rest to room temp, followed by freeze, filter, freeze, filter. That first room temp filter will get rid of a lot of the bigger shit that would clog up a 1 micron filter quickly. I personally only go down to 2.5 micron for my final filter, but I’m also not doing any carbon/celite/whatever scrubbing that needs the finer filtration.
If you aren’t using coffee filters as an initial rough filter step I would highly recommend it. You can get them for a penny each in bulk, and they technically have an average pore size of 20 microns. Much chepaer that Whatman papers, and one or two coffee filters will mean you need to replace your Whatmans less. Saves money and time in the long run.
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Sorry not sure how to edit my replies, but wanted to add this in here. If you do want to start using coffee filters, make sure you get ones with untreated paper. Don’t wanna leech any gross stuff out of your filter medium!
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You could use a jacketed/sleeved column and have nitrogen or d/i keep it frozen the whole time and use nitrogen to push thru the filter…
Never did a nitro push for filtration I usually use my diaphragm pumps compressor side (with a particle filter on the vacuum end to reduce moisture) and pump air thru to push the etoh thru my filter. I feel like Buchner’s are just as slow but again I never tried a nitrogen push.