gotcha. yep, letting your fresh material thaw while/before solvent washing is certainly on the list of ways to get your solvent wet.
it is generally avoidable. which is the preferred method.
going back for that second pass during R&D qualifies as due diligence imo, so don’t beat yourself up. You’ve learned something. possibly a couple of things.
you’ve also shared that learning so that the rest of the gang doesn’t have to try it for themselves.
thank you.
If you use 1L of EtOH to remove 50ml of water you end up having 50 ml on your 200 proof EtOH, what happens at this point to that liter of EtOH ?
Can I no longer use it for water removal since it converted to 190 proof ?
Reproof or get new
how do you reproof ??
we have been hexane/water washing our crude with great results. the disty is so stable its like shatter, very clean fractions also
we have been extracting fresh frozen biomass, around -25c, ethanol for solvent.
we have been buying new ethanol. after so many extractions the proof was down to 140. reproofing would suck
You could use molecular sieves. Or just get new 200 proof.
You could reproof to 190 in a roto then use sieves.
Do molecular sieves work for removing water of extract oil as well ?
That’s a bad idea for a lot of reasons. First, even if it does remove the water the sieves get very hot when they work. Certainly hot enough to to decarb. Second, they are very prone to creating a silty dust that will contaminate your oil. I’ve never tried it, but I don’t think I ever will.
200 proof is cheap, safe, and easy.
Iirc, a thorough washing and dry in vac oven way key into prepping mol sieves.
But x2, 5 gal of 200 proof food grade is between 250-300.
The sieves need to be activated to work well, as well. Baking while in the vac oven for a few hours ought to do it.
Could you kindly enlighten me on the procedure you use to do hexane/water wash and probably what prompted you to perform such on your crude?
Could you melt in butane run it past crc media that is for water removal like the alumina or similar?
Your gas will have water in it too. Mole sieve between collection and recovery for that.