Butane extractor/recycler

[budboy299]

Parts for this came to 22.80

that included a new propane bottle...may as well start with a new bottle

 

[budboy299]

This should help determining how much liquid butane you have in your storage tank, or anywhere else.

http://encyclopedia.airliquide.com/Encyclopedia.asp?GasID=8

this shows that liquid butane weighs 601.4 kg/m3

that works out to 601.4 grams of butane per litre
or........... 60.14 grams of butane per 100ml


So once you have your storage container built and totally empty, remember to make sure you weigh it and mark the empty weight on the tank. That way you can always keep track of the amount within the container. -BB

 

[rusty]

Ok Rusty that is totally cool! No need to run the experiment after seeing that.


BUT...I did some homework and came up with the first part.
The tank to hold the butane.

1 lb empty propane tank
Mr. Heater F273754 1″-20 Connects to 1lb tank
1/4" ball valve connects to Mr Heater pc
1/4" gas fitting connects to other end of ball valve

other than the actual tank which most ppl will have a half used one kicking around....total cost "should" be around 15 to 20 bucks.

Propane tanks are higher working pressure rated so butane would be no problem.

hell yeah man, thanks! that tank is a perfect start. I was looking into building some tank out of some sort of stainless developer tank… which prolly would of been too low-pressure… but yeah good fine man, thanks

 

[rusty]

This should help determining how much liquid butane you have in your storage tank, or anywhere else.

http://encyclopedia.airliquide.com/Encyclopedia.asp?GasID=8

this shows that liquid butane weighs 601.4 kg/m3

that works out to 601.4 grams of butane per litre
or........... 60.14 grams of butane per 100ml


So once you have your storage container built and totally empty, remember to make sure you weigh it and mark the empty weight on the tank. That way you can always keep track of the amount within the container. -BB

U rock! keep sharing the knowledge, dawg!

 

[budboy299]

So.....I made up my little valve assembly and hooked it up to the propane bottle. Then I bled off all the propane.

When you look into the neck of the propane tank there is a stem valve exactly like a tire stem has in it. You need to unscrew this. Once it is unscrewed, there is still a little sleeve of nylon that keeps it from falling out. Just reach in with a nail or something and pry out the nylon sleeve. Behind it will be the stem valve which will drop out.

Now take the valve assembly you put together and remove the brass nipple from the Mr heater part....if left in there it would severely impede the flow of butane. It simply unscrews.
Sounds far more complicated that it really is.

Screw on your valve assembly and fill with butane. I already have the can tapper but it is very easy to simply get a 1/4" NPT brass plug and drill a hole in it to accept the can's nozzle.

I loaded mine with butane this morning and as it is my first time doing the hot to cold transfer...It took me about 45 mins to load 7 small cans of colibri into the main tank.
Trying to think of a way to make the main part to be cost effective. One thing you will notice is that the cans of butane are made of incredibly thin aluminum...so whatever we are doing is about 1000x overkill. With the temperature transfering, the pressure can never get above 100psi and usually far lower. At 25 degrees Celcius the pressure is only 35.4psi

here is the finished and ready to use storage tank filled with butane.

 

[rusty]

yeah, i think your right on the hot cold transfer requiring a much less of a PSI rating. With this low pressure system I bet the butane transfer goes a lot slower rather than when u use a pump, thus i bet the butane moves slower and you get darker oil. If u use the 'transfer solovent' (rubbing alcohol) like in the vid, u could just pour the transfer solovent into a jar, freeze it, and then proceed to make pure amber

 

[jump]

One thing you will notice is that the cans of butane are made of incredibly thin aluminum...so whatever we are doing is about 1000x overkill. With the temperature transfering, the pressure can never get above 100psi and usually far lower. At 25 degrees Celcius the pressure is only 35.4psi

Cans are made of thin steel, not aluminium.

Tamisium or DIY 1/2" walls is absurd imo.

 

[budboy299]

You probably are right Jump...I just knew it was non-magnetic and had a brushed aluminum look to it. Bad conclusion on my part. Still the thought is the same...very thin stainless. Less than .030 (Colibri)

I think why tamisium went with such thick walls are two fold (although just a guess)...

One is that it will either retain heat or cold better with the heavy wall. Which personally I don't think is a great reason.

or #2, an o-ring groove is cut into the faced and threaded end, and the dimension is needed to be that thick for the o-ring groove.

There pressure wise is no reason for that thick a material though. People routinely plumb pressurized air system for compressors etc with black pipe which has a wall thickness of around 1/8". The air pressure in those systems is far greater than what we would be using as well.

Also....I have no idea why you need food grade stainless in these systems.
Yes if you do not take care of a mild steel tube it will rust but hell for the cost savings...I will spray it with a light coat of oil for long term storage.

I find it odd that we cook on cast iron frying pans, aluminum pots, stainless pots, drink beer brewed in copper kettles, and yet we are so insistent on using "food grade stainless" in something like this. Mine will be from Mild steel.

 

[jump]

Please excuse my style, perhaps the word “absurd” was rather tartly, I do not mean to offend you.

I should not generalize my claim, "London" and "Newport" are steel, I never met gas in aluminum cans, although they certainly can be.

On "London" is written that it can withstand heat up to 50С (122F), which corresponds to the pressure 5,3 bar or 77 psi. About under such pressure hot water supplies my apartment.

If I had to construct recirculator, it would pick up basic elements in the water-supply range.

 

[budboy299]

Jump...you did not offend me in any way. Actually I agree with you and also appreciate the input. The column I am currently building is made from .120 wall stainless. (I got the stainless for the same price as mild steel because the pcs were from off-cuts)

Anytime ANYONE has anything to add which can help us all in this...please feel free to do so. -BB :)

 

[rusty]

Sorry if my math is totally off, but you fit about 710ml of butane in one of those 1lb tanks?

Is it important to keep the evaporation chamber and the reclaim tank roughly the same size? Should one be larger than the other? If the evaporation chamber was, say, 3 times larger than the butane tank, would that totally throw things off?

As far as the overall dimensions go, so far my assumption is have the reclaim tank and evaporation chamber roughly the same size, I would size the 'herb chamber' to be able to fit about 1oz of material per 300ml of butane (ish)… am I on the right track? So with the 710ml of butane, id run roughly 2-3 oz of material… the tank and evap chamber would have, say, a 800ml, 77(ish)PSI capacity?

 

[budboy299]

My tank net weight is 566 grams and full weight is 886 grams.

So 320 grams of butane...which "should" be 532ml. I shot for this amount because the tank is a 1 pound tank (453grams of propane originally).
I knew it would hold a bit more though as when I shook it there was lots of room for vapors.
I would think there is room for quite a bit more as well. Wish I had measured with liquid before I filled it with butane. oops

The tamasium looks like there is aprox. 1-1/2 times volume in the reservoir as in the upper tube. I would think this is so when you do a soak like they mention in the video, and then invert it...the reservoir would be about 3/4 full and there would still be enough space for the vapors to evaporate off without having liquid go into the return line.

 

[budboy299]

Moved this over to the DIY forum....see you over there!

 

[twoguysupnorth]

Some great ideas. I also was looking into a diy versus the tamisium. I just need to find someone to work and cut steel ect. and purchace it. I am sure that somewhere around here is a place but no real ideas yet and havent called around.
I love the holding tank you have rather than building one.

 

[budboy299]

Here is one I just finished. Cost of the extractor was just over $125.00

Which when you compare it to the cost of oil...is pretty darn cheap.

 

[motherlode]

been following along the whole thread - props on the skills

wheres the pix of the gabba goo that puppy made?

 

[budboy299]

Hasn't even been run yet ML. But it is packed and ready to fire up tomorrow. Just running shake for now because I do hate being wasteful. Tomorrow night I will do a run and add some pics.

I did add a coffee filter gasket on this one, just above the mesh screen. So hopefully the goo will be some nice smooth stuff

 

[budboy299]

The one thing I do like about running one with a sight glass in it (besides knowing how close you are to being done)..is watching the butane boil off within the glass. It really is very cool.

 

[rusty]

I was about to ask if that was some sort of liquid level gage thing… nice

 

[budboy299]

The sight glass I used is from Mcmaster-Carr

http://www.mcmaster.com/#

If you look up part number 1192K16 you will see the various lengths of nylon unobstructed view sight glasses.

20 bucks and honestly worth every penny. With them you can see the level of butane in your reservoir, also fun watching as the oil/butane darkens as the butane boils off. Very cool when stoned...kind of like watching a lava lamp.