Vacuum Pump Exhaust - Safety

I use a Leybold D8B Trivac rotary vane with LVO 100 mineral oil. How do you guys vent Oil-Sealed vacuum pumps? I need to arm myself with as much information as possible because I’ve been trying for months to convince management to vent the exhaust outside.

The way I see it, if there is a terrible smell coming from the pump, there is obviously a plume of exhaust (physically in the air). This could contaminate product surfaces and really harm operators! Mind you, I change the oil between distillation runs, so every couple days. We also extract terps from fresh flower, so I’m not getting too many volatiles in the pump oil. Everything is best practices EXCEPT (in my opinion) the lack of venting the exhaust to the outside.

After a brief chat with Leybold, they recommended a $1264 exhaust filter. Cool. Probably the best I can do for now.

But do you guys have any input on this? Am I being a big whiny baby? The stuff is unbearable!! I think being told to “wear a respirator” is preposterous because we only have 2091 filters on some 3M half-face masks… These are for particulate, not gasses!

Thanks for any feedback, or just moral support, lol. :slight_smile:

I used something like this to pull exhaust through a physical wall, then into a can fan which is exhausted out of the building. The can fan is in a storage hallway that doesn’t have A/C so it doesn’t hurt our cooling costs. I hate the smell of vacuum pumps.

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Get a roughing pump for the spd to catch your volitales and you can just run a hose from the exhaust. I have a pvc pipe that runs along the wall to the outside and all pumps have a hose stuck in it to vent exhaust when the ballast is open.

Thank you @Concentrated_humbold and @NewLevelProcess for the replies so far. I just wanted to say, I think venting OUTSIDE in any way is out of the question for me. Even though I know it can be done cheaply, they are very against altering anything about the ceilings or the HVAC. Maybe I am not totally on the same page as them, and I have no idea what the reservation really is. If it can be done cheaper than getting $1300 equipment, I don’t see why we wouldn’t.

All I’m learning is that, yes, as I thought, it is best practice to vent outside… :pensive:

You can also find those filters on ebay for cheap. I have one i use to use on my d25b, just needs to inside filter changed

I also just vent both of my pumps outside. I change the oil pretty frequently so I’m not concerned about re-capturing oil.

I make my own filters. Steel 5gal bucket with latching lid. KF-25 fitting in the center of the lid, then a hole or two at the bottom-side of the bucket with stainless mesh to cover the holes. Fill bucket with 20lbs carbon pellets. Lasts a couple months.

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I kinda love this. Do you have a picture? Is this for the purpose of filtering smells and exhaust? And you have an oil sealed rotary vane? @cannabuilder

How much do you pay for bulk carbon if you don’t mind me asking?

I made the transition to all Edwards oilless pumps.

I have a few diaphragm pumps and what I would do to stop the fumes was simple.

  1. Clamp up a tube to the exhaust port. (Make sure vac can breath)
  2. Take a container fill it up with water.
  3. Dump vinegar into pot ( not too much but not too little.)
  4. Turn on vac and have it flow through water bath.

Seemed to stop smells and the cloudy fog. Not sure if it’s a 100% fix but it helps.

Yeah I use these on rotary vane pumps. Sorry, I don’t have a photo and I’m out of town right now.

I think it was $60 on Amazon last time I bought it? It was the stuff sold in mesh bags for aquarium filters.

For 20lbs worth?

That’s not a bad price, reason I’m asking is I tried pricing it out in bulk for to refill an inline fan filter, but I ended up just buying a new filter because the bulk carbon was more expensive lol.

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I always just exhaust them outside the building. No one wants to be inhaling mineral oil. Even with the exhaust filter there is still a distinct (usually kinda gross) smell, as you mentioned.

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There is a very resourceful solution in the tricks of the trade tread by @Deleted where the exhaust is run treu a hose placed in a bucket with water and fabric softner
A dash of ethanol to that bucket makes it function even beter flower spring scent all over the place :grin:
O and @Beaker (rip) used charcoal brikket bags as his carbon filter :+1:

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If you use the spd system, I suggest you use a circulating water vacuum pump or a diaphragm pump so that no oil mist is produced.
The use of a rotary vane pump with an oil mist filter should also solve the same problem.

I don’t know any diaphragm pump or water circulating pumps that work on short path distillation. You have to get much lower vacuum depth for that application.

Though it sounds odd, just a ‘mist eliminator’ by itself will not completely ‘eliminate the mist’ on a rotary vane. It’s suggested that you still vent out of the workspace, even with the use of a mist eliminator.

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Even if an oil mist filter cannot completely eliminate the mist generated by the rotary vane pump, it can be reduced a lot, avoiding a large amount of mist and affecting normal breathing.

Install a condensate separator in the exhaust line. Vent out of room. Each vacuum manufacturing publishes a manual per the pump model and should give specifics for the exhaust port.
Definitely shouldn’t be running that open in the lab. Look over the safety precautions — I’ve had exhaust lines burst off - they can cause injury.

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:call_me_hand::call_me_hand:
That company should be paying for its lab techs to be safe and properly operating…but ya know, the game is full of greed and people that don’t know what their doing