I’ve been searching around and I see a lot of people referencing “slurp tanks” but can’t find a super clear definition of what one is or how it works, I probably already know this but I want to make sure I am not missing something… I can’t find anything on google so would any of you who utilize a slurp tank please key me in here?
I am assuming that its just a tank that you can isolate and pull recovered solvent out of via vac- what does this look like really? just two tanks stacked on top of one another with valves to isolate>? pull a vac on the tank to empty into to not shoot air through the system backwards?
Every mention of slurp tank I’ve ever seen isn’t for removing solvent, it’s for pulling warm crude out of a rotovap without having to remove the evaporation globe. You can always block up a roto if it isn’t tall enough to fit a bucket underneath the recovery globe, though I’m partial to pumping solvent once vacuum is removed rather than having open containers of flammable solvent. On a 50L roto removing & handling that giant globe isn’t fun and it gets a whole lot less fun if you crack or otherwise break it while handling it.
That said I built one out of a conical fermenter from a homebrew shop, I welded on longer legs so I could fit a 5 gal bucket underneath it in order to drain out and added a couple TC ports up top for sight glasses to see how full it is. Put it on a furniture dolly with a Welch vac pump so it can be rolled up to whichever roto needs emptying.
so its just a tank with a hose that I can pull a vacuum on. pfft. ok. essentally a bucher funnel base but instead of a funnel on top its a hose. I’ve made these with 2 neck flasks before.
I had misread what you thought people were using them for. I’ve also heard of people implementing them as a way to continuously feed your rotovap with oil laden solvent.
Mine also has a valve on the bottom for emptying out into a 5 gal bucket so it can be packaged up for transport to the customer or a partner lab to take it into distillate/isolate. On a 50L roto the amount of crude that you can pull is considerable. Personally I hate inverting/suspending glassware to drain out crude. I don’t trust myself to not be a butterfingers.
@greenbuggy
Have you had any issues with increasing the tube length? We slowly have a incoming stream of tincture and I am afraid that the extra length on the tube will interfere
It is just a tank with a dip tube and a hose , you pull a hard vac on the tank and place the hose into what ever you wish to “slurp” open the valve and the liquid will be drawn into the tank.
On the slurp tank? IMO you don’t want the hose to be too long to where you’re risking too much cooldown or its going to slow down flow considerably. I don’t use the slurp tank to move tincture, only desolvated & decarbed crude. At ~70C it flows similar to 30WT motor oil does at room temperature.
I was wondering when you said “tincture” since the roto feed line length seemed kinda OT. What advantage do you think you’re going to gain by lengthening the feed line?
FWIW I like to use flexible poly hose on the slurp tank rather than trying to re-engineer the feed line, on our 50L rotos you can pull the whole feed valve/glass/hose assembly out, drop the poly line in the hole it came out of and not have to dismount the evaporation flask at all
See that’s my question because the feed line on my 10L and 20L is so short it only reaches the neck of the evap flask not anywhere close enough to suck oil out of the flask, was if putting a longer hose on the feed line interferes with slowly feeding incoming liquid.
Thats exactly what I do with my 6×6 CLS base. I preheat my rotovap flask. Once done heating, I pull a vacuum with my diaphragm pump. I then open my inlet port, then I slowly open the recovery port on my lid and I wait for a sign of vacuum building in the base. I then flip the base upside down and pour the mixture into the rotovap.
